WRIGHTSVILLE, Ga. — As technology evolves, so does crime. The Washington County Sheriff's office says the newest form of crime gaining popularity in recent years is sneaking contraband into prisons by drone.
Their most recent arrest happened last weekend.
"If they can't throw them physically over the fence, they'll get drones and fly them over the fence,” says Chief Investigator, Captain Trey Burgamy.
Burgamy says it was the early hours of Sunday morning when deputies made contact with a suspicious car at a church in Davisboro.
"As they made contact with the two individuals in the car, an actual drone landed about 10-15 feet from the deputy. They saw the contraband attached to the drone.”.
Burgamy says this may sound too good to be true, but he says drone drops have become increasingly common in the past couple of years.
"This year we've worked on five or six drone cases. Within the last-- let's say nine months to twelve months-- we had another deputy where he had pulled up on a suspicious vehicle at a location. The actual drone itself landed on the hood of the patrol car,” he explains.
Burgamy says the contraband ranges from tobacco to cell phones, all the way to hard drugs and weapons. The number of drops have increased 80% with people coming from as far as Savannah, to the prison in Davisboro.
He says some of these drones can range from $1,000 and can carry up to 30 to 40 pounds, all the way up to $8,000 drones that can carry a whopping 80 pounds.
“It's a criminal enterprise. These guys are making money inside the walls because once they get the drugs in, the tobacco in, or the cellphones in. They're selling that to other prison inmates within prison walls. They're constantly trying to think of ways to get contraband inside those prison walls,” he says.
Burgamy says he doesn't think dropping off illegal contraband will ever stop being delivered, but he says they're fighting as well as they can.
"Some of these drones, these really nice drones, they can fly five, six, seven, eight miles. You can fly that drone five miles and still make that prison drop, so we're constantly driving-- patrolling the prison area as well as the community. Two deputies per night, for 12 hours.”.
Burgamy says after interviewing some of the people caught, they've said they were promised to get paid as low as $200 all the way to $5,000.
The two individuals arrested in the most recent drone drop are charged with criminal attempts to commit a felony and possession of a firearm.