Two Arrested For Plotting To Fly Drugs-And-Porn Drone Into Maryland Prison Yard

Two men were arrested outside a Maryland state prison after being found in the back of a van with a drone, synthetic marijuana, prescription narcotics, DVDs of pornography, tobacco and a pistol, authorities said.

The arrests, which took place Saturday outside the Western Correctional Facility near Cumberland, were the result of an investigation spanning several weeks. Suspects Thaddeus Casimir Shortz, 25, and Keith Brian Russell, 29, were the first people to be arrested on charges of attempting to transport contraband to a Maryland prison using a drone, authorities said.

"You can’t make this stuff up," Stephen T. Moyer, secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, told the media, including Ars Technica, at a news conference Monday.

The Yuneec Typhoon drone found in the van can carry payload of six to eight ounces, Moyer said -- enough capacity for all the supplies except the pistol.

"The use of these drones to bring this type of contraband into a facility is very, very troubling, and we're going to address it," Moyer said, adding that he planned to ask Maryland's General Assembly to fund new drone-detection technology, costing between $350,000 and $400,000, at each state prison.

It's not the first time that a drone has been linked to a contraband case. Earlier this month, a fight broke out at an Ohio prison after a drone dropped heroin, tobacco and marijuana into the prison's recreation yards. The fight led to nine inmates being sent to solitary confinement. Two men were also charged this month with flying 28 pounds of heroin by drone across the U.S.-Mexico border.