Prison-based Georgia drug ring aided by drones; 23 charged in federal indictment

In yet another sign of the dysfunction within Georgia’s prison system, federal indictments announced Wednesday exposed alleged widespread conspiracies orchestrated by inmates to deliver contraband to state prisons using drones.

The newly unsealed federal indictments charge 23 defendants, most of them current or former prisoners from within the Georgia Department of Corrections. Their conspiracies brought methamphetamine, marijuana and cellphones to GDC prisons, according to the indictments.

A multiagency investigation dubbed “Operation Night Drop” identified two networks of prison inmates who worked with outside conspirators to deliver the contraband to Smith State Prison in Glennville, Telfair State Prison in McRae-Helena and other facilities.

The indictments were filed in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District of Georgia. They include notices that the government is seeking the forfeiture of 10 drones and 21 firearms seized as part of the investigation.

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“These indictments identify networks of individuals determined to introduce into prisons controlled substances and other contraband that compromise the safety and security of individuals who are held in those facilities and those employed there, and further endanger members of the outside public,” said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, in a news release.

Of the 23 defendants in the two cases, most are currently in prison or were released within the last few years. Six of those named were never in prison during the alleged conspiracy and were working on the outside.

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The conspiracies began as early as 2019 and continued through July 2024, the indictments say.

One of the defendants has been previously connected to a contraband scheme at Smith State Prison led by Nathan Weekes, charged with orchestrating three killings. Deivon Waller, 33, aka “Hitman” and “VP,” was named as part of that conspiracy in a 2022 indictment.

The indictments unsealed Wednesday include a multitude of text messages among inmates and others detailing how drugs should be packaged and moved into Georgia prisons via drones.

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In one text chain — between Waller and an ex-inmate identified as Donald Pate of Valdosta — Waller describes how a drone drop should go down.

“The target is directly in the middle of the yard ... we don’t have to worry about no police so we don’t kill time this is a run and gun operation ... get here get in the air come over drop reload drop reload drop reload drop and go,” Waller wrote on Jan. 16, 2023, according to the indictment.

Credit: U.S. Department of Justice

Credit: U.S. Department of Justice

Four drones were seized from Pate by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 19, 2023, the indictment says, while another drone was seized from Pate by the GDC in Calhoun County in 2022.

Credit: U.S. Department of Justice

Another text chain cited by authorities shows a man in GDC custody, Quinton Samples, and a woman on the outside, identified as Quinesha Oliver, a Jonesboro resident, discussing the GDC’s “drone blocking” issues in 2020.

“Text the white dude and tell him you will cash app him the $150 for the info on how to disable the no fly zone,” Samples wrote.

Wednesday’s news of the two conspiracies is just the latest in a series of state and federal cases involving large drug-dealing operations and contraband schemes operating within the Georgia prison system. From 2015 to 2022, the AJC found, federal prosecutors filed 21 major cases involving drug trafficking operations run from inside at least 25 Georgia state correctional facilities.

Then in March, Gov. Brian Kemp announced that more than 150 people, including a group of correctional officers and the owner of a Gwinnett County drone business, had been arrested as part of an investigation dubbed “Operation Skyhawk.” Kemp said Skyhawk led to charges against inmates, officers and civilians in a case in which investigators confiscated $7 million worth of goods, including 87 drones, 273 contraband cellphones, 51 pounds of ecstasy and 12 pounds of meth.

Many details of the Skyhawk cases are expected to be revealed as indictments are filed in multiple Georgia counties.

In a news release Wednesday, GDC Commissioner Tyrone Oliver applauded the team of agents from GDC and other agencies that worked on the case and said the agency would continue to try to block contraband.