LONDON: Organised crime gangs in the UK are using drones to deliver drugs and some weapons to inmates inside jails, threatening national security, the prison watchdog warned on Tuesday.

The gangs “are able to deliver contraband to jails holding extremely dangerous prisoners”, chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said in reports published on Tuesday after inspections of Manchester prison in northwest England and Long Lartin prison in western England.

“The safety of staff, prisoners and ultimately that of the public is seriously compromised by the failure to tackle what has become a threat to national security,” added Taylor.

There were “catastrophic levels” of drugs present at the prison in Manchester, he warned. He also said that the UK government and police had “given up” controlling airspace over the two jails.

“It is highly alarming that the police and prison service have in effect ceded the airspace above two high-security prisons to organised crime gangs,” said Taylor.

The Manchester prison had a “serious problem with drugs, weapons, mobile telephones, and even takeaway meals being delivered by drones to cell windows”, the report said. It added that there had been some 220 drone sightings at the jail in the past year, “by far the highest across all prisons in England and Wales”.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2025