Drugs Dropped into Ohio Prison Yard by Drone
A fight broke out between nine Ohio prisoners after a drone dropped a bag of drugs into one of the correctional center's recreation yards on June 29.
The yards at the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Mansfield, Ohio, approximately 65 miles southwest of Cleveland, saw some action after a bag containing "almost a quarter of an ounce of heroin, over 2 ounces of marijuana and more than 5 ounces of tobacco" was deposited in the north yard from overhead by a drone, according to KXNews.
The bag was then thrown over a fence into the south yard, and nine inmates got into a fight over it. The intended recipient is reported to have been in the north yard, where the package was first dropped. It is unknown who tossed the bag over the fence.
Over 200 inmates were taken to the prison's gymnasiums, where they were "strip-searched, run through a cell sensor and checked by a clinic."
This is not the first occurrence of a security breech by drone; Ohio's state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is taking steps to ramp up detection and prevention of future occurrences.