The Brazilian authorities this week were surprised to discover a rather ingenious attempt to smuggle cellphones into a maximum security prison.
Using a lightweight hexacopter outfitted with a small rig to carry the payload to waiting criminals, an unknown pilot attempted to deliver the phones over the wall. Discovered with its contraband still attached, the small UAV was spotted by a highway employee who saw it laying on the ground on the side of the Raposo Tavares highway. After seeing communication devices tethered to the copter, the employee notified the military police who in turn launched an investigation into the matter.
The smuggling attempt was unsuccessful due to the seven phones still being attached to the vehicle, but the authorities have no leads as to who was in control of the remote control copter. After looking at the officially released image of the UAV above, it looks like the culprit was making use of a DJI NAZA device. What’s interesting about this model of copter is that it is able to be retro-fitted with a yet-to-be-released GPS module that would allow it to instantly return to its takeoff location with a simple press of a button.
If the unknown pilot in question decided to pony up about $1,000 more than the base kit cost, he or she could have installed a global waypoint system that allows specific points to be plotted for the copter to follow. Pretty ingenious if you can pull it off. Whether or not this attempt was a simple probe to see if it would be possible to complete a full mission isn’t known, but the DJI NAZA is an expensive “toy” to just be abandoned like this one was. With kits costing upwards of $2,000 with all the acessories, we wouldn’t call this hexacopter disposable.
This isn’t the first time that someone has attempted a stunt like this. In 2009 a group of UK miscreants tried to smuggle drugs into a prison using this method, and just last year in Thailand an attempt was made to get cash, drugs, and mobile devices in as well. This activity begs the question of how many actual successful flights have been undertaken, providing convicted criminals with items that certainly aren’t meant to aid in their “rehabilitation.”
One thing is for certain, Andy Dufresne and his friend Red would have loved to have one of these hexacopters in The Shawshank Redemption.
Read more at sUAS News, via UOL Noticias
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