Telegraph Staff Writer
STARKE—The Florida Department of Corrections said Jacksonville deputies arrested a former Department of Corrections inmate, accusing him of using drones to deliver cell phones to Florida prisons.
Mario Brian Crawford, 33, was arrested on multiple charges, including introducing contraband, operating an unmanned aircraft over a critical infrastructure facility, trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of cocaine.
The agency said Crawford was released from FDC custody in 2021 after serving a seven-year sentence for trafficking in stolen property and grand theft and is currently under supervision for a case in Georgia.
The agency added that Crawford is among others suspected of being involved in a larger-scale operation of contraband introduction into multiple Florida correctional institutions using drones.
“Contraband threatens officers and inmates alike, and when it comes to cell phones, the threat often extends outside the prison gate,” said Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon in a news release. “Contraband cell phones impede the ability of our staff to manage a safe and secure institution. This arrest is part of a broader department mission and represents the successful disruption of a criminal contraband introduction network across Florida.”
The department said that since July 2012, FDC has seized more than 76,400 cell phones.
“Currently, FDC is working with federal, state, and local partners to reverse the federal law prohibiting cell phone jamming technology-” the agency said, “a frequency used to render cell phones unusable within the compounds of an institution.”
