Drone Drug Kingpin Bags Six-Year Stretch
The brains behind a high-tech drone smuggling racket flooding UK prisons with drugs and contraband has been slammed with a six-year jail term, West Mercia Police confirmed today.
Kaine Jones Caught Red-Handed at Redditch Crown Court
Kaine Jones, 28, from Redditch, was convicted of conspiracy to smuggle banned goods into prisons and possession with intent to supply MDMA. His gang used drones to sneak in mobile phones, tobacco, Class A and B drugs to jails across England, Wales, and Scotland. Jones was sentenced for smuggling phones, charging cables, tobacco, and dangerous drugs. A cannabis possession charge was recorded but not prosecuted further. All seized contraband has been confiscated.
How Cops Cracked the Drone Drug Runner’s Code
The police first got wind of Jones in June 2024 after a Toyota van was found abandoned near HMP The Mount, Hertfordshire. Inside, officers uncovered a massive drone and a bulky parcel stuffed with tobacco, cannabis, iPhones, SIM cards, and Class A drugs. A laptop tucked in the van held drone flight software tied to multiple drug drops near prisons like HMP Bullingdon, HMP Exeter, and HMP Hull. In August 2024, a similar drone crash-landed near HMP Winchester. Digital forensics linked it straight back to test flights from Jones’s Redditch home.
Epic Haul and Ironclad Evidence Puts Jones Away
Jones was arrested at Birmingham Airport on 30 September 2025. Police found his car stuffed with backpacks and packages containing cannabis resin, MDMA, tobacco, and a drug kit worth over £20,000. Officers seized scales, multiple phones, laptops, forensic gloves, fishing hooks, and sticky tape used to attach drugs to drones. Phone records revealed chilling chats about drug prices, prison drop routes, and selfies of Jones posing with his drones.
DC Michael Vince of the North Worcestershire county lines team said: “We are pleased with this sentence for Jones, who was the criminal head of a sophisticated network of illegal drug drops into UK prisons. “This was an incredibly complex but ultimately successful investigation that significantly disrupted the flow of illicit items into prisons and caused major setbacks for the organised crime group involved.”
