Knuckleheads caught using drone to smuggle prison contraband.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections issued the following statement.
Two young drone pilots attempted to use technology to drop marijuana and other contraband to their friends at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility at Pearl, and now they’re in jail.
Thirty-three-year-old John Travis Ross of Vicksburg and 18-year-old Joshua Ray Corban of Utica are charged with conspiracy and attempting to smuggle contraband into a prison.
The drone carried a payload of two ounces of marijuana buds, a cellphone, phone chargers, headphones, and several cigarette lighters.
The duo’s plan almost worked until the drone got caught in security nets above the facility’s razor wire fences.
Rankin County Sheriff’s Office used its own technology to trace the drone’s flight path and Ross, a parolee, and Corban were eventually identified as suspects.
“We’re bringing all of Mississippi Corrections into the world of 21st Century crime-fighting technology, and we’re doing it quickly,” says MDOC Commissioner Burl Cain. “They tried to use the drone to help their friends—now it’s going to help us. We’re reprogramming their drone now to use at Parchman so it’s working for the law instead of against it.”
Lead investigator Glenn Dixon said, “We were able to download data from the drone and were able to obtain an address in Vicksburg, where the drone had been frequently used. We cross referenced that address with our MDOC files.”
MDOC’s Corrections Investigation Division coupled that with security video recorded at Mississippi Department of Public Safety Criminal Information Center (CIC) that showed Ross and Corban launching the drone. CIC is a hundred yards down the road from CMCF.
Commissioner Cain says the two confessed and are now facing prison stints, if convicted.
In Ross’ case, he could be returning to prison. He has been on parole since October 2018 for sale of a controlled substance in Warren County. He and Corban made an initial appearance in Rankin County Court on Tuesday.
MDOC Director of Investigations John Hunt says this is the third drone MDOC has intercepted at a Mississippi prison in recent years.
20 comments:
So MDOC has put a stop to guards smuggling contraband into the prison???
That is funny.
I thought it came right in the front door
DOC using high tech nets.
My bet is on the smugglers.
DOC 1. Smugglers, how many thousands?
And I definitely would not do a press release advertising that smugglers can use drones. This is reminiscent of a Star Wars scene late in Episode IV.
Where did these Knuckleheads get $400.00 to buy this type of drone?
Looks like the used the MHP office for their takeoff spot.
Ahh, that drone is evidence, not the property of the authorities to use. Cart..before..the..horse.
Yes, it may be funny but also true and very sad. Pay these employees more so they do not have to supplement their mediocre income by selling contraband to the inmates.
“We’re bringing all of Mississippi Corrections into the world of 21st Century crime-fighting technology, and we’re doing it quickly,” says MDOC Commissioner Burl Cain. “They tried to use the drone to help their friends—now it’s going to help us. We’re reprogramming their drone now to use at Parchman so it’s working for the law instead of against it.”
That guy is so full of shit.
He sounds so much taller on the radio.
@8:28 - If guards were paid 60k a year, they would still smuggle in contraband. Prisons are full of people who were making tons of money before they got busted. But, these were not employees.
If a school can use signal blockers to keep kids from using cell phones then why can’t the MDOC use the same technology to make inmates cell phones useless and disable drones?
@10:22pm Yep, that's why they hired him. He can spin and weave a pretty quilt out of goose poop. He's analogous to Carey Wright. Both and others are the prototypical Mississippi heads of agencies that allow Mississippi's loser leaders to not have to actually do the people's business.
5:28 - Seems I recall something about prisons doing that being unconstitutional or some such crap-nonsense.
Don't know what happened as I wasn't there, but good job. Still say we some prison reform, but that's a subject for a different time. Could cut out some of this BS.
"If a school can use signal blockers to keep kids from using cell phones then why can’t the MDOC use the same technology to make inmates cell phones useless and disable drones?" I don't know what school you're talking about, but my kids call/text me and the wife from school on a regular basis. Yes the technology exists, and why the prisons and or jails aren't using it, I cannot respond. I have heard that this is done at the Madison County Detention Center, but before you start yelling about proof, I cannot verify just been told by cops that their cells don't work inside.
Good job slowing down the problems with prisoners and their friends helping them break the law. Sadly, those problems will be with us as long as there are criminals with friends.
DOC using high tech to stop smugglers.....nets.
If they'll behave and chill, I don't care if every one of them has a cell phone and a weekly supply of pot. Would make guarding the place a lot easier.
It's prolly a damned good thing that 'cops' cells don't work inside the Madison County lock-up. They park those black and whites all over the county and sit there texting half the shift.
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