Drone images show how gangsters flood jails with drugs and weapons

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This intercepted drone shows how air raids by criminal gangs flood Scottish prisons with illicit drugs and weapons.

This six rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - worth over £1000 new - was customised to carry a payload of drugs, mobile phones, sim cards and chargers into HMP Perth earlier this year.

It as one of nine that was intercepted by Scottish Prison Service watchers this year so far.

But another 66 have been spotted buzzing around jails this year and many more are thought to have delivered their potentially deadly hauls of up to 10 kilograms.

Three separate parcels were attached - which are believed to have been directed to different gangland customers, acting in cahoots with crooks on the outside.

Ongoing drug trade helps fuel violence, intimidation and coercion within jails - which are in danger of being over-run.

The Daily Record has revealed a huge explosion in gangland violence behind bars - with a 72 per cent leap in attacks in two years.

SPS intelligence files show that:

*gangland contract violence now tops a record £3 million.

*numbers of crime gang members inside has soared by 21% in a year - with 653 now adding to mayhem on a daily basis.

*Violent incidents each month exploded from 95 in 2022 to 163 this year - up 72% in two years.

*The number of drones known to have carried deadly drug and weapon cargoes to jails has rocketed from 7 in 2022 to 67 this year so far - up tenfold.

*8% of the entire prison population is an identified Organised Crime Group member

Tony Martin, the SPS’s Divisional Head of Operational Delivery, said it was only through the skill and vigilance of staff that far more drugs don’t get through.

He said: “We work very positively and proactively in Police Scotland to stop drones coming in and to target those who fly and organize the drones - and they have enjoyed some recent success with arrests.

“Some of the product on a drone can be worth tens of thousands of pounds and that can include weapons, phones and drugs.

“Unfortunately, just now, the drugs of choice within prisons are the kind of poly substances.

“One pill might test positive for three or four different substances - pills, powders, liquids. It may test positive for three or four different drugs.

“We don’t know the strength of them or the effects they have until they play out in the prisons.

“The packages that comes in can be worth tens of thousands of pounds inside the prison and that all points to the operation of serious organised crime groups.”

The value of the drug stash behind bars would be far higher than on the outside - meaning the crooks are prepared to risk losing entire consignment if other batches find their way to associates.

The sale and spread of drugs would sustain a culture of violence and retribution, with addicted prisoners vulnerable to coercion after carrying out tasks for crime bosses.

These might include attacks, ranging from punishment and warning beatings to slashings and attacks with sugar and boiling water, which can scar victims for life.

The drone would be flown by a pilot on the outside towards a specific cell, where a prisoner would be awaiting at a specific time - perhaps using a mobile phone to guide the flying device to its final destination.

The entire haul would either he pulled in through a cell window or could end up crashing to the ground, where prison staff would recover it, along with the cargo.

Officers are understood to have notified Police Scotland on many occasions, leading to a rapid response that has seen the arrest of suspects outside the prisons.

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