Mum used drones to smuggle drugs and phones into Leicestershire prison yard

A gang of drug dealers used drones to smuggle around £1 million worth of contraband into prisons. Among the group’s targets was HMP Gartree in Leicestershire.

The group was led by Lucy Adcock, 47, who organized 22 drops in one month in six prisons across the UK. HMP Gartree, in Market Harborough, was among the mum’s targets before she was eventually detained, reports Wales Online.

Adcock’s other targets included the troubled Welsh prison HMP Parc in Bridgend. In April last year, prison staff discovered a dropped package containing £50,000 worth of illicit items, including class A and B drugs and mobile phones, in the prison market.

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While the drone operator remained unidentified, two more packages were recovered from the Parc exercise yard in May 2023. Police were alerted and used automatic number plate recognition to identify vehicles in the vicinity at the time.

Adcock’s car was traced from this, she was arrested in a Premier Inn car park by the police. At Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, prosecutor Matthew Cobbe revealed how the drops took place.

He said: “She came down from the London area and was stopped in the car park of the Premier Inn in Bridgend by officers later that day. She had a drone in the car with her. In fact, the drone had software that could be downloaded and examined. Examination revealed that it was not only used in the early hours of that morning to deliver drugs into Parc Prison, but was used on many previous occasions in other prisons across the country.”

In the month leading up to the May events, Adcock and her gang flew drones 22 times over six prisons, with Onley in Warwickshire, Guys Marsh in Shaftesbury, High Down in Sutton and the Mount in Hemel Hempstead also targeted alongside Gartree and Park. . Analysis of Adcock’s phone led to the arrest of Craig Davenport, Ryan Dorland, Nicola Ogle and Emma Watson, all of whom confessed to their involvement in the conspiracy.

In court, Mr Cobbe revealed how the group attached hooks to packages to make them easier to take from inside a prison cell. He would throw a sheet to cling to the package and pull it inside. The packages recovered included cocaine, the opioid Subutex, the anabolic steroid Oxandrolone, the pain reliever Phenacetin, cannabis resin, sheets of A4 paper soaked in the synthetic cannabinoid spice.

iPhones, SIM cards, charging cables and tobacco were also recovered. The group was estimated to have supplied items with a total market value to the prison of £1,099,670 to £1,426,150.

The court heard how Adcock, from Ruislip, “starred in both directing and directing”. She was jailed on Monday (July 8) after pleading guilty to conspiracy to transport schedule A and B substances into prison. She was also sentenced alongside Davenport, 46, and Dorland, 44. Dorland claimed he was unaware that Class A drugs were among the materials that came over the prison walls.

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