Mobile woman busted in smuggling-by-drone scheme
By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A Mobile woman was arrested April 15, seven weeks after an investigation was launched by Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) narcotics officers in the wake of an attempt to smuggle marijuana into Holman Correctional Facility (Holman) by drone.
Two drones were reportedly used — or one drone was used twice, prison officials didn’t say — in the attempted airborne dope drop, which took place around February 27. The remote-control-piloted aircraft reportedly crashed with their cargo, which was recovered before the illicit weed could be distributed among inmates.
According to an ADOC press release, an investigation led narcotics officers to obtain a seven-count warrant against 36-year-old Andrea Latrice Robison, including violations of Federal Aviation Administration guidelines for operation of a drone.
Robison was booked into the Escambia County Detention Center (ECDC) on two counts of attempting to commit a controlled substance crime, two counts of first-degree possession of marijuana, two counts of illegal drone operation and one count of second-degree promoting prison contraband, the prison system’s release said.
“The investigation is ongoing, and additional charges may be pending,” ADOC officials said.
The attempt to use a drone to breach the barbed wire fences at Holman, where Alabama’s Death Row inmates are housed, was reportedly the first at that facility, but it was at least the second such attempt in recent years to deliver prohibited items by air to inmates at one of the two state prisons just outside Atmore.
A Mobile man was taken into custody in 2022 after an investigation revealed he was the person who tried to use a drone for delivery of 37 cell phones to Fountain Correctional Facility inmates.
That attempt also crashed and burned. ADOC investigators noticed the drone flying above the prison yard in early April of that year and began looking into its purpose and tracking its flight.
Joshua Uziel Hunter, now 36, was eventually arrested by ADOC investigators, who charged him with one count each of being an inmate in possession of a cell phone and trespassing at a state prison.