After they accidentally filmed themselves stuffing a drone with pills and cannabis, a couple of drug dealers got caught as they tried flying the drugs into Perth prison.
Thirty-five-year-old Michael Martin and thirty-two-year-old Paul Reilly were focused on getting the drugs to Martin’s brother, who is serving time there.
However, the police studied the video from the drone after it crashed and uncovered the two men.
Martin was sentenced to 1 year in prison and Reilly got 33 months in jail from the Perth Sheriff Court.
The court discovered that the drug dealers were not aware that they were recording themselves as they stuffed the drone with £3,000 in drugs that were concealed inside Kinder Eggs.
Furthermore, they accidentally captured the address of the house they were working from and the vehicle outside that was theirs.
Police were already familiar with Martin from Kirkcaldy and Reilly from Cumbernauld and both were identified from pictures.
On September 22, 2017 at 1 am, prison officers were carrying out regular ground patrols when they heard the drone overhead, but since it was dark, they couldn’t see it. They found the crashed drone with a cellophane package located adjacent to it.
The court learned from the prison officer that the drone crashed close to the cell where Martin’s brother is serving time at the Perth Prison.
Police confiscated the drone and the drugs. The camera on the drone has a micro SD card attached to it and this is where the police found the footage when they examined it. The video clearly showed that the drone was turned on to test it, but the bad news for the criminals was that it kept recording unbeknownst to them and showed three men.
Reilly, Martin and a third unidentified man were the men on the video that was recording in a bedroom at the address 66 East March Street, Kirkcaldy. Reilly was shown wearing gloves stuffing a Kinder Egg with white pills and dividing cannabis resins into cubes.
Photo Credit: Crown Office