The State Secretariat of Prison Police (Seppen) investigates the possible use of a drone to smuggle materials to the Oscar Stevenson Penal Institute, a female prison in Benfica, in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The equipment reportedly flew over the unit between 3am and 4am on Saturday morning (12).
The material seized includes 20 phones, more than six kilos of drugs and a large quantity of cigarettes. The discovery happened after the prison police officers on duty in the guard towers found the drone flight strange and followed its movement, which led the agents to conduct a search in one of the cells in the early hours of the morning.
In addition to the drone flight, the officers also noticed movement considered atypical in the Favela do Arará, surrounding the prison unit, during the early morning. The combination of the two facts drew the attention of the authorities.
This is not the first case in which drones are seen flying over prison units, indicating a trend in the use of this technology to smuggle illicit materials into prisons.
