Drug trafficker who tried to smuggle heroin into Saughton Prison using drone jailed

A drug trafficker who tried to smuggle heroin into a prison by flying a drone over a built-up city area was jailed for more than five years today in the first Scottish conviction of its kind.

John Grant lost control of the aircraft and it crashed with its load of drugs and mobile phones in a residential garden.

The grounded device also contained footage on its camera of Grant adjusting settings on the drone and with GPS co-ordinates of his home address.

The drone was found by a woman in the Redhall area of Edinburgh who noticed a lot of string strewn around her back garden.

When she began to gather it up a black sock attached to the string fell from the roof of her garden hut. She then found it was attached to a drone wedged between her hut and fence.

She cut open the sock and found three mobile phones, two chargers and a haul of heroin and diazepam.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the heroin was worth £11,000 but its value would soar if it had successfully been delivered into prison.

After Grant (47) was identified from film recovered from the drone and a search of his home found a further half kilo of heroin worth £48,000.

Advocate depute Jim Keegan said the heroin recovered was valued at £59,000 but more money could have been made out of it because of the premium payable in jail and its high purity.

Grant admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin between November 5 and 18 last year.

He also admitted two breaches of Scottish prison legislation by attempting to fly the Class A drug and mobile phones into Saughton jail in Edinburgh on November 5.

He also pled guilty to culpably and recklessly piloting "an unmanned aircraft system" at night with its aviation lights taped making it invisible to other aircraft to the danger of the public and other aircraft. Grant was on bail at the time of the offences.