A DRUG trafficker who tried to smuggle heroin into a prison by flying a drone over a built-up area has been jailed for more than five years in the first conviction of its kind in Scotland.
John Grant lost control of the aircraft and it crashed with its load of drugs and mobile phones in a residential garden.
The grounded device also contained footage on its camera of Grant adjusting settings on the drone and with GPS co-ordinates of his home address.
READ MORE: Workers face worst pay growth since Napoleonic Wars
The drone was found by a woman who noticed a lot of string strewn around her back garden near Saughton Prison.
When she began to gather it up a black sock attached to the string fell from the roof of her garden hut. She then found it was attached to a drone wedged between her hut and fence.
She cut open the sock and found three mobile phones, two chargers and a haul of heroin and diazepam.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the heroin was worth £11,000 but its value would soar had it been delivered to the prison.
After Grant, 47, was identified from film recovered from the drone, a search of his home found a further half-kilo of heroin worth £48,000. He admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin between November 5 and 18 last year.
The judge said Grant would have faced a prison term of eight years, but his sentence would be reduced following early guilty pleas.
Grant, a former mechanic, was previously jailed for 44 months for a drug-trafficking offence.
Advocate depute Jim Keegan said that, after the downed drone was recovered, a memory card was found containing images and footage and GPS information.
The prosecutor said: “Footage from the early hours of November 4 showed the accused seated in his living room and operating a remote controller and an electronic tablet to adjust the drone’s settings.”
Mr Keegan said that, during the search of Grant’s home, police also discovered a metal mould for pressing heroin and an iPad used to control the drone.
A box for the drone and a set of instructions were also recovered.
During the search at the house, a woman appeared. She was aware of the attempt to use the drone to drop drugs and phones into the prison.
Mr Keegan said that she “was able to tell the police about the plan that had gone wrong and that the accused was angry and concerned about having lost his drone and its payload”.
Mr Keegan told the court: “It is important to be clear that the DJI Phantom is regarded by the Civil Aviation Authority as an aircraft and not a toy.
READ MORE: Workers face worst pay growth since Napoleonic Wars
“It falls into the category of a small unmanned surveillance aircraft, due to the data collection capability.”
The prosecutor added: “Any aircraft, once airborne, presents an element of danger to the public as well as aviation.
“This drone was flown in what is properly termed a congested area. It was flown with its aviation lights covered over so that it could not be readily seen.”
Defence counsel Tony Lenehan said Grant’s drug use had become worse after his last prison term. He added: “He became, what I would describe as, a junior partner or employee in a criminal enterprise.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here