Speaking at a briefing during the Defence and Security Equipment
International show in London, analysts from NOMS described drone use as
an “emerging threat” which will increase as UAV technology becomes
cheaper and easier to use.
NOMS said the number of attempts to infiltrate prisons using four or
six-rotor drones widely available over the internet or from high street
retailers remains small but is rising rapidly. In the five months to May
this year, nine incidents were detected in England and Wales, compared
to four for the entirety of 2014.
Drones operated by organised crime gangs pose an increasing threat to
security in Britain’s prisons by offering a new route to smuggle drugs
and potentially firearms into the hands of criminals, senior officials
have admitted.
Small commercial drones are being used to lift packages containing
illicit goods from mobile phones to synthetic drugs into jails, where
they threaten security by increasing the availability of intoxicants
which can provoke disorder in prisons.
Intelligence officers at
the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) revealed they are also
concerned at the potential to use remote-controlled Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs) to drop lethal weaponry into jails after a package the
same size and weight of a gun was successfully dropped unnoticed into an
unnamed maximum security prison during covert testing earlier this
year.
Investigations suggest that several incidents where drones
have been used to overfly prisons or deliver packages in the last 18
months were linked to serious crime groups. As a result, governors are
now bracing themselves for security breaches by UAVs to become a more
frequent problem across Britain’s 150 prisons.
Eve Richard, a senior analyst at the NOMS intelligence unit, said:
“In a nutshell, our intelligence suggests that the use of UAVs to
release items into our prisons is an emerging threat. It’s not a huge
issue at the moment but there is the potential for it to increase and
become more of an issue.”
Slides shown at the briefing underlined
the nature of the threat, adding: “Intelligence suggests the use of UAVs
to convey items into prisons will become more common as technology
advances, costs reduce and confidence in their use and functionality
grows.”
Ms
Richard added: “All prisons are vulnerable - it doesn’t matter where
they are, it doesn’t matter what type of prisoner they have, it doesn’t
matter what kind of security category they are. Everywhere is vulnerable
because it is air space and as long as you can get [a UAV] over the
wall you are vulnerable.”
The NOMS analysts said drones were being used as an alternative to
established and significantly less hi-tech ways of smuggling illegal
items into prisons such as using visits or “throw overs”, where packages
are simply thrown over prison walls into exercise yards.
A
sophisticated UAV capable of being precisely manoeuvred using GPS
technology and carrying a payload of up to a 1.5kg can be bought for
less than £1,000 and flown with minimal training.
Recent incidents
where drones were used to breach security include an attempt in March
to fly a UAV into Bedford Prison with a package containing mobile phones
and drugs. The aircraft became entangled in barbed wire after it was
believed to have been destabilised by its cargo.
A drone was also
spotted overflying HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire at night on a
possible reconnaissance or distraction mission while another was found
two weeks ago after crashing into fencing at Liverpool Prison.
The items found on board the UAVs include smartphones and SIM cards -
as well as accessories such as chargers and batteries - to enable
career criminals to continue offending from inside prison, and
consignments of synthetic psycho-active drugs such as “Spice”.
Managers
are concerned that the ability of drones to deliver larger quantities
of these drugs into prisons could have a knock-on effect on security by
increasing the risk of violence against staff and between prisoners.
Lorna
Shore, head of the NOMS Intelligence Analysis Unit, said: “On a day to
day basis we are managing assaults against staff and prisoners and they
are getting more serious and more difficult to manage. We don’t actually
understand the reasons why but there might be some links with new
psycho-active substances coming in.”
One of the most troubling
threats posed by drones is their potential for infiltrating concealed
weapons into even the most secure prisons.
As part of a
three-month study of UAV risks, NOMS said it had carried out a test
flight of a drone over a maximum security prison. The drone managed to
fly over the prison and drop a package of similar size and weight to a
handgun before withdrawing without being noticed by any of the staff on
duty.
Ms Richard said: “We have had no intelligence that drones
are being used for trafficking weapons; however, we can obviously all
recognise that the potential is there.”
NOMS said it was working with the National Crime Agency after
investigations suggested that individuals with potential links to
serious and organised crime networks were behind some of the drone
flights.
Ms Shore said: “We need to understand further whether there is a co-ordinated effort behind this.”
Officials
are now looking into acquiring technology which may counter the threat
of drones, including products which can interfere with the radio signal
controlling UAVs and bring them safely to ground.
In the meantime,
the intelligence officials underlined that the prospect of a drone
being used to airlift a prisoner out of jail remains highly unlikely.
They pointed to one recent attempt by a drone enthusiast to lift himself
using multiple UAVs harnessed to a metal frame, which resulted in the
man being lifted off the ground for just two seconds.
Drone dangers
Passenger jets
A
number of incidents in which drones have “buzzed” aircraft as they took
off or landed at four UK airports, including Heathrow, resulted in a
warning from the Civil Aviation Authority this summer that UAV pilots
faced jail if their devices flew too close to jets.
The Emirates and other landmarks
Security guard Nigel Wilson was this week fined £1,800
and banned from owning drones after he flew his UAVs around a series of
prominent buildings, including Arsenal’s Emirates football ground and
the Houses of Parliament before posting the footage on YouTube. A judge
told Wilson, 42, his actions were “the height of arrogance in terms of
public safety”.
Shopping by air
Several
companies, including Amazon (below), have expressed a headline-grabbing
interest in using drones to deliver goods. Among the suggestions are the
establishment of separate airspace for UAVs to avoid collisions as they
zero in on customers’ smartphones or home addresses. Regulators are as
yet unconvinced.
NOMS said it was working with the National Crime Agency after
investigations suggested that individuals with potential links to
serious and organised crime networks were behind some of the drone
flights.
Ms Shore said: “We need to understand further whether there is a co-ordinated effort behind this.”
Officials
are now looking into acquiring technology which may counter the threat
of drones, including products which can interfere with the radio signal
controlling UAVs and bring them safely to ground.
In the meantime,
the intelligence officials underlined that the prospect of a drone
being used to airlift a prisoner out of jail remains highly unlikely.
They pointed to one recent attempt by a drone enthusiast to lift himself
using multiple UAVs harnessed to a metal frame, which resulted in the
man being lifted off the ground for just two seconds.
