Officials fight drones flying contraband over walls at northern Minnesota prison
By Mike Kaszuba
For more than a year, officials at a federal prison in northern Minnesota have been battling a unique problem: Drones that fly drugs, cell phones and cigarettes over the prison walls during the night and attempt to drop them into the courtyard.
Documents obtained by Public Record Media (PRM), a non-profit based in Saint Paul, show that the FBI was assigned to investigate the drone activity and that sheriff’s deputies in Pine County, where the federal correctional facility in Sandstone is located, have battled to find the persons flying the drones over the prison walls from nearby areas.
In one instance in August 2023, an official reported that six drones were dropping contraband into the prison during one evening. In another instance, police arrested two men from Memphis, TN.
The documents also show that prison officials have employed a drone detection system to address the issue, indicating that the problem has been ongoing and that authorities have been engaged in a cat-and-mouse exercise to find the drone operators.
“The [prison] has been receiving an influx in contraband on their grounds including dope, cigarettes, and cellphones,” Joseph Mishler, a Pine County sheriff’s official wrote in an August 2023 email to deputies. “They have been finding it on the grounds and just off premises.
“They intercepted a drone with 12 illegal phones being dropped on the yard covered in glued grass on a vacuum sealed bag this week,” he added.
The federal prison in Sandstone, located 90 miles north of Minneapolis, is classified as a low security facility. It houses roughly 1,200 male inmates.
Federal officials have indicated that the problems with drones at Sandstone are not isolated, and have recently issued nationwide alerts about drones flying contraband into prisons.
The National Institute of Justice, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, warned in June 2023 about illegal drone use over prisons. “Correctional staff tasked with identifying and responding to drones must overcome technology that is quickly gaining enhanced abilities to deliver contraband and avoid detection,” the institute stated.
Between 2015 and 2019, the institute stated, the U.S. Department of Justice reported 130 drone incidents in federal prisons, but added “that count is almost certainly low.” After new reporting policies went into effect in 2018, the institute added, “the number of incidents recorded increased by 87%.”
Large black drones
Deputies in Pine County were, meanwhile, alerted to drone activity near the Sandstone prison as recently as two months ago -- late on the night of Nov. 27, 2024, the day before Thanksgiving.
Shortly before midnight, according to a sheriff’s department report, multiple large black drones were detected on the west side of the prison. “Live ping on the operator,” the report stated. “Confirmed that the drones are dropping contraband.
“[Prison] staff recovered 1 of the packages dropped,” the report added. “Covered in blk electrical tape and a mesh bag.” The report also added that a traffic stop was made in connection with the drones. “There were two drones on [property]. Large black drones,” the report added.
“Drone ping system had the operator on Pine Ave.,” the report stated.
The sheriff’s office said two men, in fact, were arrested following the incident that night, both from Memphis, TN. The two men were charged with introducing contraband into a prison, though the arresting documents did not mention their use of a drone.
Four days before that incident, sheriff’s deputies and prison officials investigated another report of a drone near the prison.
Documents obtained by PRM showed that sheriff’s patrol cars were dispatched before sunrise on Nov. 23, 2024 to look for an unauthorized drone. “Have had a drone fly over,” the report stated. “Last seen at 5:16 am over rec yard south passed power house down one of the trails it looked like.”
The report said deputies “did not find any vehicles.”
The documents also showed that prison officials at Sandstone were using a drone detection system -- with limited success.
In May 2024, a Pine County Sheriff’s Office official sent an email to deputies, outlining the issue. “[Prison officials] have a drone detection system set up and should be going live very soon,” he wrote.
“They will get a notification if a drone trips their geo-fence, and the system will allow them to track the drone and also look back to see where it came from. They will call us if they get a suspicious drone hit. The system is able to see other drones in the area, but they will not track them unless [they cross] the [Federal Aviation Administration] no fly zone,” he added.
“The FBI Duluth will be tasked with any investigations or charging of federal crimes, so get good information and pass it on if we are not able to arrest,” he wrote.
The FBI did not respond to a request by PRM for comment on the Sandstone prison incidents. The FBI also did not respond to whether other prisons in Minnesota were facing similar issues with drones.
Similarly, officials at the Sandstone prison did not respond to a request by PRM for comment on the drone issues at the facility.
An August 2023 report meanwhile stated that the sheriff’s office was investigating “six drones dropping contraband” near midnight one evening and that the drones were “coming from [the] other side” of a nearby river. “At least one over [the prison] compound [right now],” the report stated. Deputies, after checking several areas including a gravel pit, did not find anything, the report stated.
Three weeks before that incident, a sheriff’s office official said one drone had been confiscated. “One of the drones used for a drop had a 7 mile radius and a common location they would fly from is the old power station off Pine Ave on the way to Blueberry Falls,” Blake Richert, a Pine County deputy, said in an Aug. 5, 2023 email.
In both September and October 2023, sheriff’s deputies investigated more incidents of drones flying near the Sandstone prison.
“Had a drone fly way above the yard area around midnight,” a sheriff’s office report on Sept. 16, 2023 stated. “Nothing was dropped.
“Ongoing issues with drones,” the report added.
(Supporting documents for this article can be accessed by contacting Public Record Media at admin@publicrecordmedia.org , or at 651-556-1381)