BISHOPVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Three weeks before Christmas, a guard discovered a package dropped by a drone in a prison yard.
Steak, weed and crab legs, and days worth of cigarettes. To spice it all up, a pitcher of Old Bay is also needed.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections posted the hashtag #ContrabandChristmas on social platform X and said the illegal meals were delivered by drone into the Lee Correctional Institution prison yard.
A photo from the Bishopville jail showed a raw steak still in its grocery store packaging, along with crab legs and old bay alongside plastic bags of marijuana and several cartons of cigarettes. The drone was also seized Sunday morning, authorities said.
Prison officials said they are investigating and no arrests have been made.
“I guess the inmates who were waiting for the packages were cranky,” jail spokeswoman Christy Shane said.
Preventing contraband from entering state prisons is a constant battle. People would throw or use catapults to carry packages of cellphones, drugs or other illegal items over the fence until officials raised the fence and added protective netting on top.
People trying to smuggle items inside prisons began using drones, leaving corrections officers to patrol prison yards and outside looking for small aircraft trying to drop packages.
Flying a drone near a South Carolina prison is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail. Throwing contraband into jail is a felony that can land someone in prison for 10 years.
