Mother, 47, is jailed for six years for being ringleader of gang that used drones to smuggle drugs worth £1million into prisons
A mother has been jailed for six years after being the ringleader of a gang which used drones to smuggle drugs worth £1 million into prisons.
Lucy Adcock, a 47-year-old mother from London, was the group's ringleader who organised 22 drops in a month across six British jails before she was arrested in a car park, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Matthew Cobbe said staff at Parc in Bridgend found a dropped package on April 24 last year containing illicit items worth £50,000 on the prison market including Class A and B drugs, as well as mobile phones.
The drone operator was not identified but in the early hours of May 11 two more packages were recovered from the Parc exercise yard.
Police were alerted and automatic number-plate recognition was used to identify vehicles in the area at the time.
'It wasn't long before Lucy Adcock's car was traced,' said Mr Cobbe.
Lucy Adcock (pictured), a 47-year-old mother from London, was the group's ringleader who organised 22 drops in a month across six British jails before she was arrested in a car park, Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard
Analysis of Adcock's phone led to police arresting Craig Davenport (pictured), Ryan Dorland, Nicola Ogle, and Emma Watson, all of whom admitted involvement in the conspiracy
Packages recovered included cocaine, the opioid Subutex, the anabolic steroid Oxandrolone, the painkiller Phenacetin, cannabis resin, sheets of A4 paper soaked in the synthetic cannabinoid spice, iPhones, sim cards, charger cables, and tobacco. Pictured: Ryan Dorland
'She had driven down from the London area and she was stopped in the car park of the Premier Inn in Bridgend by officers later that day.
'She had a drone in the car with her. In fact the drone had software that could be downloaded and examined.
'The examination revealed that it had been used not just during the early hours of that morning to deliver drugs to Parc prison but it had been used on many previous occasions and other prisons across the country.'
In the month up to May 11 the group had flown drones 22 times over five other prisons - Gartree in Leicestershire, Onley in Warwickshire, Guys Marsh in Shaftesbury, High Down in Sutton, and the Mount in Hemel Hempstead.
Analysis of Adcock's phone led to police arresting Craig Davenport, Ryan Dorland, Nicola Ogle, and Emma Watson, all of whom admitted involvement in the conspiracy.
Mr Cobbe said the group attached fishhooks to the packages to make them easier to grab from inside a jail cell. A sheet would be thrown out to snag onto the package and draw it in.
Packages recovered included cocaine, the opioid Subutex, the anabolic steroid Oxandrolone, the painkiller Phenacetin, cannabis resin, sheets of A4 paper soaked in the synthetic cannabinoid spice, iPhones, sim cards, charger cables, and tobacco.
In the month up to May 11 the group had flown drones 22 times over five other prisons (Stock Image)
It was estimated the group supplied items with a total prison market value of £1,099,670 to £1,426,150.
The prosecutor said Adcock 'played the leading role both directing the others and taking a hands-on role'.
Adcock, from London, and Davenport, 46, from Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, and Dorland, 44, were sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to convey A-list and B-list items into prison, with A-list being the most serious type, although Dorland maintained he was not aware there were Class A drugs among the material that went over prison walls.
Judge Paul Hobson jailed Adcock for six years, Davenport for four years and nine months, and Dorland for four years.
Ogle and Watson are due to be sentenced at a later date.
The case comes as new 'no-fly zones' were introduced earlier this year around prisons in England and Wales to stop drones being used to deliver drugs and contraband to inmates.
One case last year involved an organised crime group which used a drone to smuggle more than 20 packages containing drugs and mobile phones into HMP Risley in Warrington, Cheshire between August and December 2020 .
