Mississippi men were allegedly trying to smuggle marijuana, cigarette lighters and cellphones to friends in correctional facility.
John Travis Ross (left) and Joshua Ray Corban (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP)
A drone carrying marijuana, cigarette lighters and cellphones got caught in a net above a Mississippi prison fence, resulting in the arrest of two men, state corrections officials said.
John Travis Ross, 33, of Vicksburg and Joshua Ray Corban, 18, of Utica, made initial court appearances Tuesday in Rankin County on charges of conspiracy and attempting to smuggle contraband into the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, the Mississippi Department of Corrections said in a news release Wednesday.
The two were identified after Rankin County sheriff’s investigators traced the drone’s flights — and then investigators turned up security video of them launching the drone, officials said. Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain said the two confessed. It was not clear whether they had attorneys who could speak for them.
The drone, caught Aug. 26, carried 2 ounces of marijuana buds, a cellphone, phone chargers, headphones, and several cigarette lighters, the corrections department said.
“They tried to use the drone to help their friends — now it’s going to help us,” Cain said, adding that officials plan to reprogram it to use at the state’s maximum-security prison in Parchman, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Pearl. “We’re reprogramming their drone now … so it’s working for the law instead of against it,” he said.
The drone is the third intercepted at a state prison in recent years, said John Hunt, the department’s director of Investigations.
A Wisconsin judge is at the center of a growing national debate after being arrested by the FBI for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant evade ICE agents.
Whistleblower says a female co-worker faked documents, experimented on dismembered limbs, and cremated the remains at a North Austin mortuary.
Pennsylvania nutrition director finds herself in deep trouble after turning a convenience store cooler into an unlicensed restroom.
Cops are hunting a Bronx man accused of one of the most disturbing subway crimes in recent memory – and that’s saying something.
It’s the high-class hooker scandal shaking Boston’s elite—34 well-heeled men, including doctors, executives, and a city councilor, unmasked as alleged johns in a secret luxury sex ring stretching from Cambridge to D.C.
When Clint Bonnell told his wife he was leaving her for another woman, prosecutors say she had a deadly – and messy – response.
This website uses cookies.