A corrupt prison nurse who used hollowed -out shoes to smuggle drugs and SIM cards in prison has been locked up for 20 months.
Kiera Burton, 33, rumbled after he was found with the smugglingwaar during a stop and searches for work.
The caregiver was part of a 15-person gang who also used high-tech drones to deliver packages of medicines in the HMP Preston yards.
Another tactic concerned a serving prisoner who claimed to be unwell, so they were taken to the hospital where they would pick up packages with drugs and telephones in the toilets.
Proof was collected to show that drugs were also put in prison in children's clothing during prison visits.
The investigation that exposed the gang started when the police started tracing the drug supply of two HMP Preston prisoners, Stinton Glover, 32 and 38-year-old Eric Taylor.
Kiera Burton, 33, rumbled after he was found with drugs and SIM cards during a stop and searches for work. Depicted on the right: the hollowed -out shoes she used to smuggle drugs
The gang used advanced drones to deliver packages of medicines in the yards of HMP Preston. This image shows a drone control panel while the drone floats over a prison
Medicines were found in condoms (depicted)
Glover's phone revealed that his top contacts were Jonathan Royal and Danny Ryder, both 32, who were behind bars on the nearby HMP Lancaster Farms – a category C prison with 549 men.
Later it turned out that Royal and Ryder coordinated the range of drugs in HMP Preston from their cells and worked with conspirators both inside and outside prison.
All 15 members of their organized crime gang were sentenced on Friday to more than 50 years in prison. Burton was locked up for 20 months.
Royal received seven years and 11 months and Ryder six years.
Det Sgt Peall, from the East output team, said: 'This was a refined criminal gang in which both prisoners and people smuggle on the outside and other smuggling, such as mobile phones and SIM cards that regularly use in prisons that use different methods.
'We will continue to work with our partners in the prison service to tackle the range of drugs and to focus on everyone involved.
“Criminals who think they can continue with their illegal activities behind bars, have to think again – this case shows that we will dismantle criminal gangs who work inside and outside prison, disrupt their activity and chase perpetrators and are placed in front of the courts.”
“I am grateful to colleagues in the prison service and at the Crown Prosecution Service in what was a very complex investigation.”
A stock of money seized by officers who investigate the mass and 'advanced' conspiracy
The investigation that exposed the gang started when the police started analyzing the drug facility of two prisoners at HMP Preston, Stinton Glover, 32 and 38-year-old Eric Taylor
Jonathan Royal and Daniel Ryder coordinated the delivery of drugs in HMP Preston
Bundles of cannabis were disguised as a candy by the gang
The last inspection report for HMP Preston showed that drugs were too easy to get in prison and that its use was immediately linked to debts and violence.
It is far from the only British prison struggling with the issue, with Charlie Taylor, HM head inspector of prisons, who describes the issue of drones that drop smuggling in prisons as a threat to national security.
Apart from shipments of illegal drugs and weapons, prisoners received mobile phones and even collection meals, Mr. Taylor thought.
He called for urgent action earlier this year after inspections had found high levels of drugs in HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire.
Mr. Taylor said: '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.
'It is very alarming that the police and prison service have actually given airspace over two long-standing prisons to organized crime gangs, which are able to deliver smuggling where to prisons with extremely dangerous prisoners, including some who are designated as a high risk category A.
“It is horrifying that weapons can be delivered in this way – especially when some of these wings hold terrorists.”
Katie Walter, Deborah Ingram and David Leach helped smuggle the gang of drugs to HMP Lancaster Farms and HMP Preston
Jamie Whelan, Michael Royal and Oliver Howlett were all convicted as part of the conspiracy
Mr. Taylor rather described how one prison became through so many drones that it was like an 'airport'.
He discovered that more than a dozen cells at HMP Garth had holes in their windows that were burned by prisoners with the help of the element from their boilers.
They then use pugs and brooms to drag illegal substances hanging on drones that float outside.
Last year a few were imprisoned because they had made more than a hundred drops in 11 prisons for just a year.
Drone pilot Sajad Hashimi, 27, flew his DJI Phantom 4 in prisons on 78 dates between August 2022 and October last year -as a result of drops as far to the south as dorset and so far to the north as Edinburgh, with his wife Zerka Maranay hiring those cars to help the road.
