Jason Thompson, 34, abused his position at HMP Isis to help an organized crime group ferry cannabis, mobile phones, and USB sticks into the prison over a five-month period, according to multiple reports. Thompson earned between £400 and £600 per drop as the key insider in the smuggling operation, which involved at least 18 organized attempts to bring items into HMP Isis, with phone evidence showing 28 packages either successfully delivered or attempted. The conspiracy to smuggle contraband into HMP Isis occurred between February and July 2024, according to prosecutor Sam Barker. Smuggling methods included Thompson carrying items through staff entrances or couriers handing over packages during social visits, multiple reports indicate. The plot began in early February 2024, with Thompson smuggling items through the prison officers' entrance on 7 February. On 10 February, Thompson attempted another drop but had to return packages due to clingfilm failing to conceal the smell of cannabis, and on 14 February, he brought in 190g of cannabis but abandoned it in a toilet after an additional search. On 13 March, prison staff intercepted a package of cannabis at HMP Isis. Thompson had been working at HMP Isis before Olusegan Shobanjo entered custody in 2023 after his license was revoked, according to multiple reports.
Video footage from inside HMP Isis showed illegal activity, including Rama Wato passing a small package to Olusegan Shobanjo, according to the Metropolitan Police. Wato, 26, was a 'trusted and regular smuggler' who earned around £3,500 for his role, multiple reports indicate. This evidence formed part of a broader pattern of prison corruption enabling external criminal networks to operate within detention facilities.
Nine people have been jailed after a failed attempt to smuggle drugs into a prison by drone helped police catch a trafficking network. The drone missed its target and smashed into a tree yards from the walls of HMP Parc in South Wales in August 2023. Hayley Price and her daughter Kaci-Leigh Stones drove from Nottingham to make a delivery to Shaun Lau in August 2023, using a drone that crashed into a tree at HMP Parc. They were attempting to drop drugs behind the prison walls for Lau to sell to inmates, according to multiple reports. Footage shows Price and Stones using a torch to hunt for the drone before being stopped by police after prison staff raised the alarm. Police stopped Price and Stones shortly after the drone crash and recovered cannabis wrapped in cling-film, mobile phones, SIM cards, and drone parts. Officers found more than 1.1kg of cannabis bundles wrapped in cling film, mobile phones, and SIM cards in their car, multiple reports indicate.
Daniel Yeboah and Shaun Lau were ringleaders described as career criminals who directed accomplices from their prison cells. Yeboah arranged for cocaine and fentanyl to be imported, paying a great-grandmother to accept a delivery disguised as cookies. Lau employed dealers who sold drugs on the streets of Nottingham and sent drugs and phones into his jail for sale to inmates. According to Detective Inspector James McDonagh, Yeboah was Price's supplier, a convicted drug trafficker nearing the end of his sentence at HMP Buckley Hall. Yeboah boasted about supplying a 'super-heroin' laced with fentanyl while in his cell, McDonagh said. Yeboah directed Price where drugs were to be collected from, using an illegally held phone in prison at HMP Buckley Hall, multiple reports indicate. Yeboah posted pictures of himself on social media using the phone from his cell, according to multiple reports.
This is a man who, whilst in his cell, was still controlling the drugs market within Nottinghamshire.
Messages on their phones 'unravelled' an investigation connecting Price to several dealers, including Lau, according to detectives. A search of Price's home in Sherwood uncovered traces of heroin, cocaine, cannabis, and MDMA, as well as deal bags and scales. Det Insp James McDonagh said Price's home was a 'wholesale control hub' for drug dealers in and around Nottingham. Mobile phone messages revealed Price boasting about raking in £29,000 in one month from Lau to buy 1kg of cocaine, according to multiple reports. The operation uncovered a large-scale Class A and B drugs operation, including the sale of a 'super heroin' mixed with fentanyl, multiple reports indicate. The gang's criminal empire was run jointly by Lau and Daniel Yeboah, attempting to flood Nottinghamshire with drugs including lethal 'super heroin', according to multiple reports.
Lau and Yeboah continued running their drug empire after being freed from prison, multiple reports indicate. When Lau was released in December 2023, he operated a drugs business with Shiero Marquis, selling crack cocaine, heroin, and bulk quantities of cocaine and cannabis. When Marquis was arrested in March 2025, his car contained nearly six kilograms of cannabis. Police estimated the drugs operation was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Lieran Dawes, 30, facilitated drug deals arranged by Yeboah from his prison cell, storing bulk quantities of heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, and other substances, according to multiple reports.
Angela Price, Hayley Price's 61-year-old mother, was paid £250 to accept a parcel of cocaine disguised as cookies from Trinidad and Tobago, according to detectives. Some of Yeboah's imported drugs were shipped to Hayley Price's 61-year-old mother in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, according to research. Nottingham Crown Court heard Price was a great-grandmother who prepared supplies of cocaine, heroin, cannabis and fentanyl for wholesalers and dealers, according to research. The exact role of Angela Price beyond accepting a cocaine delivery remains unclear, as sources describe her as both a paid courier and someone who prepared multiple drugs for distribution.
Systemic security failures at other prisons have enabled similar smuggling operations. Inmates at HMP Manchester are sitting in their cells watching daytime TV and taking drugs smuggled in through broken windows, according to an inspection report from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor. Drones bring 'large quantities' of drugs into HMP Manchester, with broken or insecure windows unfixed for two years due to bureaucratic processes, Taylor reported. Inspectors found HMP Manchester remains in 'a precarious state' 15 months after an urgent notification notice. Around 38% of prisoners at HMP Manchester tested positive for drugs in random tests, according to multiple reports. Funding for secure windows was approved in 2021 but 'hardly any' have been installed, and inmates have breached them by melting panes with kettle filaments, multiple reports indicate. Prisoners reach through window gaps to grab packages of drugs from drones hovering outside. There is a failing CCTV system, slow action to install secure windows, and failure to replace damaged netting over exercise yards at HMP Manchester, according to multiple reports.
He's arranging importations to addresses within Nottinghamshire. He was boasting about supplying a 'super-heroin' and that was going to be laced with fentanyl.
Charlie Taylor said police and the Prison Service have 'ceded the airspace' above high-security prisons to organized crime gangs using drones. The effectiveness of current measures to prevent drone smuggling in prisons remains uncertain, given ongoing incidents and security failures. Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that has cost many lives in the United States and is up to 50 times stronger than heroin, according to Kieran Grant from the Nottingham Recovery Network. Grant warned that fentanyl could have a massive impact on drug-related deaths in the city and nationally, and that low-quality heroin laced with fentanyl could be fatal in one dose. The scale of fentanyl distribution in the UK beyond this case is not fully known, as sources note it is rare but concerning.
In a separate case, Amanda Meadowcroft and Bradley Couzins, a mother-son duo, tried to bring 14kg of 'low-quality' cocaine through Manchester Airport and have been jailed, according to multiple reports. Couzins masterminded the scheme, directing his mother to carry cocaine from the Dominican Republic through Manchester Airport on April 22 last year. Border Force agents stopped Meadowcroft and discovered the packages were mostly cutting agents with only trace levels of cocaine. Couzins organized passports and travel for his mother, with text messages showing he offered her a choice of trips and confirmed flight logistics, multiple reports indicate. Meadowcroft was serving a suspended sentence for importing 30kg of cannabis when she made the latest smuggling attempt.
Couzins attempted to destroy his phone by smashing it with his handcuffs, injuring an NCA officer, after police caught up with him four months later, according to multiple reports. Meadowcroft and Couzins pleaded guilty to importing cocaine at Manchester Crown Court in September 2025, with Couzins also pleading guilty to assault. Meadowcroft was sentenced to seven years in prison, and Couzins to seven years and six months. A woman arrested alongside Meadowcroft at Manchester Airport was initially charged but released with no further action. Expert witness Christopher Green said high-quality drugs would have been worth up to £294,000. Judge Hilary Manley said the cocaine was of low purity and Meadowcroft and Couzins may have been duped.
Conflicting claims emerged about coercion in the mother-son smuggling case. Amy Weir argued some messages showed Couzins intimidating and threatening his mother to import the drugs. Ben Berkson said Couzins was the organizer directing Meadowcroft, but both played significant roles, and coercion claims did not match the messages. The total number of individuals involved across all the smuggling operations is not comprehensively documented, as reports focus on specific cases without providing an overall count. Whether Daniel Yeboah directly imported heroin or only cocaine and fentanyl remains unclear, as sources mention him boasting about 'super-heroin' laced with fentanyl but do not confirm heroin importation.