Police today released an appeal for information after recovering two drones carrying mobile phones and drugs in the vicinity of Pentonville Prison in Caledonian Road.
It comes just weeks after an explosive prison monitoring report claimed gangs have exploited prison’s “shoddy” windows by sending small drones – which can be steered to window sills – with drugs, mobile phones and other contraband.
The Met responded by setting up “Operation Airbourne” to catch offenders. On a patrol in the early hours of last Saturday, a man was seen acting suspiciously close to the prison. On seeing officers, he ran from the scene, dropping two bags containing Class B drugs and mobile phones. He evaded arrest.
The following day, last Sunday, officers recovered a drone after tracking it flying over HMP Pentonville, before it crashed.
Later in the day, they were alerted to another drone being flown towards the prison. The low flying drone was stopped mid-flight by an officer and a package containing a large quantity of drugs and two mobile phones was recovered.
No arrests have been made.
Det Chief Insp Steve Heatley said: “We work closely with the prison service to gather intelligence in order to carry out proactive operations to arrest and prosecute such offenders. I would urge anyone with information about these events to contact the police or Crimestoppers to help us to identify those responsible.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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