Australian trio adds porn to drone contraband prison delivery menu

Payloads aboard drones used to drop contraband into prisons around the world usually comprise drugs, tobacco, and cellphones, though one curiously creative – and now definitely busted – trio in Australia decided to diversify its illicit recreational cargo by adding a USB drive filled with porn to the mix.

A high court in the Australian city of Brisbane convicted three defendants last Friday for their roles in a 2022 attempt to use a drone to fly $119,000 ($76,400) worth of drugs and digitized dirty movies into a Queensland prison. The attempted launch of the illegal form of aerial delivery services bit the dust – almost literally – when the UAV used crashed while attempting to drop its payload in the penitentiary’s exercise yard.

Prison guards came across the downed drone and discovered it carrying 79 strips of the opioid Buprenorphine – each worth from $1,000 ($642) to $1,500 ($964) on internal contraband market, according to