Drone intercepted near Maryland prison, officials say - Baltimore Sun (blog)
Two law enforcement officers found the four-rotor mini-helicopter on the rear passenger seat of a Ford pickup truck parked outside the state prison complex near Cumberland on Saturday evening, they wrote in court documents. "You can't make this stuff up," Corrections Secretary Stephen T. Moyer told reporters Monday outside the Patuxent Institution in Jessup. Attempted drone deliveries of contraband have been reported in other states, including Ohio and South Carolina. The issue was a hot topic at a recent national conference of correctional officials, said Pete France, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Moyer called the threat of contraband drone deliveries "an emerging problem" for the prison system, and said officials were researching ways to prevent it. He said drone-detecting technology would cost between $350,000 and $400,000 per institution. Moyer said officers from the Western Correctional Institution, a maximum-security facility in Cumberland, spotted the vehicle on a side road off U. S. 220 near the prison complex about 8 p. m. Saturday. Source: www.baltimoresun.com
