The issue has become so pervasive that 21 state attorneys general sent a letter to the US National Security Council in late March asking for help handling the sharp increase in drone drops over prison grounds, namely through the loosening of federal restrictions that they say limit the way state and local law enforcement can respond.
“This type of illegal activity is happening all over the country and the consequences are severe,” they wrote. “The introduction of drugs contributes to addiction, violence, and overdose incidents. Smuggled weapons heighten the risk of assaults and coordinated acts of violence. Contraband cell phones enable incarcerated individuals to continue criminal enterprises, including fraud schemes, witness intimidation, and violent crime.”
Though contraband is not a new problem, drone drops have become a regular occurrence for the South Carolina drone captain. This year, its 21 state prisons have dealt with 75 drone smuggling incidents as of April 24 – and recorded 273 such incidents in 2025, according to a department spokesperson.
Now, drones fly right up to a prison yard or an inmate’s window and deliver a package, “kind of like a DoorDash,” said the captain, who asked CNN not to use his name for fear of retaliation: His colleague’s house was set on fire a few years ago in response to his work fighting contraband in prisons, according to the SCDC and public testimony before a state legislative committee.
A drone turned South Carolina officials’ worst fear into a reality in 2017, when they said a man received wire cutters via drone at Lieber Correctional Institution and used them to break out of the facility, prompting the state to take more aggressive steps to curb the problem.
“We learned quickly how dangerous drones can be,” said SCDC Director of Communications Chrysti Shain.South Carolina is also one of several states that has noted a concerning trend of weapons like knives and blades entering their facilities through drone deliveries.
Florida’s attorney general announced an 81-year prison sentence for a man convicted for orchestrating a drone scheme that smuggled razor blades, drugs and other contraband into multiple facilities in the state in March. New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision emphasized the need for stronger laws after detecting a drone with double-edged knives and other smuggled goods at a facility near Utica, while Georgia’s Attorney General said the state is averaging 58 drone incidents per month at its prisons, with weapons, razors and narcotics among the contraband.
However, any contraband that enters a prison is dangerous – not just weapons, according to Paul Adee, a corrections and security expert for the firm Robson Forensic.
“The violence doesn’t always come from those items, but it comes from the access and control of those items,” Adee explained. Inmates who possess and control contraband, he said, “will exert their muscle to maintain control of the black market.”
Though the drones most often bring in typical contraband like drugs, cell phones and weapons, SCDC also highlighted some of the more unusual goods its officers have encountered.“Just anything you can imagine, it comes in,” said Shain.
A holiday drone delivery contained crab legs, steak and Old Bay Seasoning, South Carolina officials said.A holiday drone delivery contained crab legs, steak and Old Bay Seasoning, South Carolina officials said. South Carolina Department of Corrections
During the holiday season, a drone drop included crab legs and steak, complete with Old Bay Seasoning and cigarettes, according to the SCDC. Other drops have included dental jewelry – better known as grills – watches, game consoles, flavored drink powder, speakers, stun guns and escape tools.
There’s also a level of creativity when it comes to camouflaging the drone deliveries, Shain and the captain said. They found a black and white stuffed toy cat in March hiding drugs believed to be worth tens of thousands of dollars. The team believes the toy was flown in by a drone and used in hopes it would blend in with the facility’s stray cats.
The SCDC believes this stuffed toy cat – which was filled with drugs – was used in a drone delivery to help it blend in with stray cats.
The SCDC believes this stuffed toy cat – which was filled with drugs – was used in a drone delivery to help it blend in with stray cats. South Carolina Department of Corrections
Drops are sometimes disguised as grass, such as the drone delivery seen here.Drops are sometimes disguised as grass, such as the drone delivery seen here. South Carolina Department of Corrections SCDC officials said the above work boots were also used to hide contraband in a drone drop.
SCDC officials said the above work boots were also used to hide contraband in a drone drop. South Carolina Department of Corrections
Grass and turf disguises can be tricky to spot, the captain said. The team recently confiscated a basketball and work boots they believe were delivered by drones that both contained several grams of drugs.
“Every day is a different crazy story because contraband is such big business. Anything they can do to camouflage and cover it up and get it past our officers, they do,” Shain said.
The contraband discovered inside the stuffed toy cat.The contraband discovered inside the stuffed toy cat. South Carolina Department of Corrections. The contraband found inside the basketball. ‘It’s just not one individual. There’s a network’
Most drone drops aren’t isolated incidents, but instead part of larger, profit-driven operations, officials and experts say.
Most of the pilots behind the drones in South Carolina are members of gangs and organized crime, according to the drone captain, and many are former inmates who know the “lay of the land,” have connections inside the prison and know where to drop the packages.
Frank Strada, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction, similarly told CNN pilots coordinate drops with inmates using illegal cellphones that may have themselves been brought in by drones.
“I don’t think it’s the average citizen coming in and dropping in cigarettes,” Strada told CNN.
“There’s a lot of people involved in drone drops. It’s just not one individual,” he said. “There’s a network.”
The drone pilot communicates exactly where the package will be delivered and at what time, the South Carolina captain said. Sometimes inmates won’t have access to where the packages fall or will miss the deliveries, he said, and officers will find the packages in the yard days later.
Those involved may face a range of charges if caught. In Texas, seven people – including two corrections officers – were arrested in early April and charged with engaging in organized crime for their roles in what officials said was a large-scale operation to use drones to smuggle contraband into a prison outside Dallas.
The drops usually happen at night when they’re difficult to see, the South Carolina captain said, with pilots taping up the drone’s lights and flying above the facility’s lights to avoid attracting attention. For deliveries directly to a cell window, he’s seen inmates mark the outside with something to help the drone know where to go. Sometimes they’ve seen two drones come in at the same time, so one can be used as a distraction, Shain said.
Though the drone made its delivery in the middle of the night in the case at Turbeville Correctional Institution outside the cafeteria, the captain was able to pick up helpful clues on the security footage after he was called in around 5 a.m.
Watching the footage back, he began to put the pieces together, he said: One inmate exited the cafeteria to head toward the yard right as the drone delivered the package. The inmate looked visibly frustrated as officers surrounded the package and quickly ran back into the cafeteria, the captain said.
“We’re going to identify that inmate and find out what he knows,” the captain said at the time. “Because he knows something.”
People inside the facility who are caught receiving a contraband drop can be charged in their disciplinary system, moved to a more secure housing unit, transferred to a different prison, or, in some cases, face criminal charges – all consequences SCDC hopes at least slightly impede the network.
The SCDC has taken several steps in response, from erecting 50-foot nets akin to those found at driving ranges to using high-tech systems that detect drones and notify law enforcement and relevant staff, including the captain and his two sergeants.
That detection system, called Dedrone, can also help officials pinpoint the pilot’s location, according to the company’s website, using radar, video, acoustics and the radio frequencies that drones use to communicate with their operators.
While the system can lead officials to the site of the drone’s origin, flight times average about six minutes, the captain said. By the time the sheriff’s office gets to the purported launch site, the pilot is “usually gone.”
Perpetrators trying to avoid detection altogether may use “dark drones,” the captain said, which don’t set off any radio frequencies. Most drones in the US are required by the Federal Aviation Administration to have remote identifications, which provide tracking information receivable by outside parties. Experts say, however, it’s possible to remove that tracker to avoid detection in violation of FAA guidelines.
State officials say there is more that could be done, if they were allowed to expand their toolset.“Despite the seriousness of this threat, state and local law enforcement remain significantly constrained in their ability to respond,” the state AGs March letter said.
“Federal law currently limits the authority to detect, track, and mitigate unauthorized drones to a narrow set of federal agencies,” they wrote. “As a result, correctional officials – who are on the front lines of this issue – often lack the legal authority and the necessary tools to intervene in real time. The people closest to the threat should not be the least empowered to stop it.”
The AGs specifically asked for increased authority to “disable or intercept drones” before they reach prisons.Joel Anderson, the director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, inspects a drone in September 2025.
Joel Anderson, the director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, inspects a drone in September 2025. South Carolina Department of Corrections
Several federal agencies currently have the authority to hit a drone with a laser, high-powered microwave or another drone, said Neal Parsons, a senior research scientist at RTI International who has worked with the federal government on evaluating drone mitigation technology for the past five years.
“Some of these technologies, if you’re talking about lasers or munitions … there’s a potential risk for a manned aircraft to be disturbed or damaged by those technologies,” he said
Two recent incidents illustrate the risk: In February, a military counter-drone laser was used by US Customs and Border Protection near El Paso, Texas, without coordinating with the FAA, causing the airspace over the city to be shut down temporarily. A few weeks later, the military accidentally shot down a CBP drone about 50 miles away.
According to Parsons, more common techniques used by federal agencies include taking control of a drone to bring it down safely or deploying another drone to capture the unauthorized aircraft with a tethered net.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed it evaluates and uses drone mitigation strategies in a statement to CNN but declined to discuss specifics “for security reasons.”
Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission also began the process of potentially allowing local and state correctional institutions to jam cell signals from illegal contraband cellphones, which would hinder inmates’ ability to coordinate drone drops with the pilots on the outside. Jamming technology is only currently allowed in federal prisons.
South Carolina’s team is hopeful the move to jam the signal and make illegal phones equivalent to a “block” or a “paperweight” could significantly help their problem.
In the meantime, Shain and the captain said they strive every day to make their prisons safer.
“I get called in every night,” the captain said. “I’m pretty good at delegating though. I have two other sergeants so I’m like, ‘Hey, this week, you’re not getting sleep, and I’ll sleep.’ We’ll take shifts.”