Woman smuggled sock stuffed with phones and drugs via drone into Peterborough prison

A woman has been jailed after using a drone to smuggle a football sock stuffed with drugs and mobile phones into a prison.

Nicola Rigitha, 23, of Peterborough, used the technology to fly the package to a prisoner at HMP Peterborough in June 2021.

Prison officers noticed the drone heading towards a third-floor window where the inmate took it through a hole in his window.

When they entered his cell, they found 10 miniature mobile phones, seven packs of cigarette papers, six packs of tobacco, cannabis and a Zanco mobile phone - all stuffed inside the sock.

They later traced his phone calls from the prison and arrested Rigitha at her home.

Inside they found a box for the Zanco mobile phone.

The cannabis was thought to have a prison value of £5,800 and the tobacco worth £3,000.

Rigitha was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to conspiring to trying to smuggle prohibited articles into prison.

She was also ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.

"Conveying prohibited items into a prison will not be tolerated," PC Floyd Matthews, said.

"We work closely with colleagues at HMP Peterborough and we will continue to prevent further incidents of this nature taking place.”

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