Use of drones to fly weapons into prisons has become a 'threat to national security', watchdog warns
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The use of drones to fly drugs and weapons into UK prisons needs to be tackled "urgently" because it has become a threat to "national security", the chief inspector of prisons has said. Charlie Taylor added that police and the prison service had in effect "ceded the airspace" around HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin to organised crime gangs who are using the gadgets to deliver contraband to inmates.
The two high security prisons hold some of the most dangerous men in the country, including terrorists and organised crime bosses. Mr Taylor's warning comes after inspections of HMP Manchester, based in the city centre, and HMP Long Lartin, in Evesham, Worcestershire, found both prisons had "thriving illicit economies" of drugs, mobile phones and weapons.
Inspectors also found that basic security measures such as protective netting and CCTV had fallen into disrepair. Some inmates at HMP Manchester, a category B jail which holds a small number of category A prisoners, had burned holes in windows so that they could receive regular deliveries by drone, the HM Inspectorate of Prisons watchdog said as it published the findings of the inspections.
It added that many of the drones had "increasingly large payloads" which "had the potential to lead to serious disruption and even escape". Reform within touching distance of Labour as poll suggests 'new era' for British politics. Woman arrested on suspicion of murder after man's body found in Greater Manchester.
