B

By Nathan Pynn

A grinning crook poses for a selfie with a drone he used to smuggle drugs and contraband into multiple prisons across the UK.

Kaine Jones, 28, headed a “sophisticated” gang who ran a ‘drone delivery service’ to serving prisoners.

Jones and his accomplices supplied drugs, tobacco, mobile phones and charging cables to inmates for an agreed price.

The criminal enterprise involved the gang flying the contraband over prison walls and dropping them in agreed areas for pick-up.

Police discovered they successfully targeted prisons across England, Scotland and Wales, on multiple occasions over a 12-month period.

Jones was so cocky he even posed for a selfie alongside one of the drones.

Prison governors have warned of a new era of specialized gangs piloting drones to fly drugs and weapons into jails to “beat” the system.

Jones was jailed for six years after admitting conspiracy to convey prohibited articles into or out of a prison and possession with intent to supply a class A drug, namely MDMA.

Cops launched an investigation Jones after an abandoned Toyota van was found near HMP The Mount in Hertfordshire following a police chase.

Officers found a drone and a large parcel wrapped in clingfilm and bubble wrap, which contained tobacco, cannabis, iPhones, SIM cards and small packages of class A drugs.

A laptop in the van contained software named ‘Mission Planner’ that included telematics linked to repeated drone flights.

It also included contacts saved and calls made to HMP Bullingdon in Bicester, HMP Exeter, HMP Hull and HMP The Mount.

In August 2024, a large self-build modified drone like the one recovered in June, crashed at HMP Winchester.

Digital forensics linked it to a test flight carried out in July near Jones’ home in Tillington Close, Redditch, Worcs.

On September 30 last year Jones was arrested shortly after getting off a plane at Birmingham Airport.

A search of his home address found the keys to a Seat Leon car parked outside which was linked to the prison drone drops.

Officers searched the car and seized backpacks, bags and packages containing drugs including cannabis resin, MDMA and tobacco worth over £20,000.

Other items seized included scales, forensic gloves, laptops, multiple mobile phones, building line, fishhooks and glue.

The phones also revealed conversations about prices for drugs and drops, routes to prisons as well as selfies of Jones with the drones.

Detective Constable Michael Vince, of West Mercia Police, said: “We are pleased with this sentence for Jones who was the criminal head of a sophisticated network of illegal drugs drops into UK prisons.”

Earlier this year it emerged some criminal gangs are making up to £50,000 per delivery of drugs and contraband into prisons using multiple drones to make the drops.

The Ministry of Justice recorded more than 1,000 drone drops last year across the prisons estate. Most drops take less than 20 seconds with packages weighing as much as 7kg (15.4lbs).