The Counter-Drone Drill
D-FEND SOLUTIONS BLOG
When most people think of drones, they picture speedy e-commerce deliveries or breathtaking aerial photography. Yet in prisons, these unmanned aircraft have been repurposed for something far more dangerous: delivering contraband. Small, commercially available drones have become the preferred tool of choice for smuggling illicit goods to inmates.
Once confined to crude “over-the-wall” tactics, smuggling has now taken flight. Small, agile drones bypass physical barriers to carry drugs, weapons, mobile phones, and even fentanyl-laced papers directly into prison yards. Operating silently and often under the cover of darkness, these drones can deliver multiple payloads within minutes, all while the pilot remains well outside the prison perimeter.
This shift has created a crisis for prison authorities worldwide, compelling correctional authorities and governments to seek smarter, non-disruptive counter-drone defenses.
The scale of the problem is staggering. In England and Wales, 1,712 drone incidents were recorded between April 2024 and March 2025, a 43% increase from the year before. Sophisticated drone models worth thousands of pounds, capable of carrying multiple payloads, were recently seized at HMP Manchester and HMP Wandsworth, leading to nine arrests.
The threat is global. In Canada, officers at Collins Bay Institution in Kingston seized multiple drone-delivered packages in August 2025. The haul included cannabis, hashish, heroin, tobacco, and an edged weapon, with a street value of nearly $137,000 inside the prison system. This marked the tenth such seizure at the facility in just eight months.
Aerial view of Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, a multi-level-security federal prison during winter season. Photo credits: csc
Meanwhile, in the United States, federal prosecutors charged a Florida man for orchestrating drone smuggling across three states. Between December 2024 and August 2025, he conspired with inmates to fly drones loaded with contraband cellphones and fentanyl-laced paper disguised as synthetic grass.
In Leyland, Lancashire, a drone spotted over HMP Garth in August 2025 triggered a swift police response. Officers intercepted a vehicle carrying the drone along with a “significant” quantity of drugs and a weapon. A 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of smuggling contraband and possessing an offensive weapon.
Each of these cases illustrates how drones empower criminals to flood prisons with illicit goods, fueling violence and undermining rehabilitation efforts.
Correctional facilities face constant pressure. Overcrowding, strained resources, and rising violence amplify the risks posed by contraband. Illegal drugs and mobile phones empower inmates to continue criminal operations, coordinate crimes, extend influence, and incite violence from within. The UK’s Safety in Custody statistics reported over 20,000 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and 10,500 assaults on staff in a single year, much of it linked to contraband access.
Prisons are structurally vulnerable. Traditional solutions like nets, body searches, and patrols can’t match the speed, altitude, and persistence of these airborne smugglers. Because commercial drones are inexpensive and replaceable, criminals can launch multiple attempts until one succeeds. These unique conditions have made prisons a priority environment for advanced C-UAS for correctional facilities, where safety, selectivity, and operational continuity are critical.
Prisons have experimented with various detection and mitigation tools, but none provide a complete or sustainable solution.
The stakes are high. A failed interception not only allows drugs and weapons inside but signals vulnerability to criminal networks. Real protection requires moving beyond disruption,toward control.
Prisons need a proactive, precise, and safe way to neutralize rogue drones without risking collateral damage or operational continuity. That’s where cyber-driven C-UAS takeover for correctional facilities transform the defense landscape.
Unlike disruptive or kinetic methods, takeover solutions detect and identify unauthorized drones, take control mid-flight, and guide them to safe landing zones, preserving continuity and enabling investigation.
This approach provides three essential advantages:
D-Fend Solutions’ EnforceAir systems lead the field in safe and controlled drone mitigation for sensitive environments like prisons. Built on deep research and operational experience, EnforceAir delivers the precision, reliability, and flexibility needed for 24/7 facility defense
EnforceAir enables security teams to set layered protection zones around facilities, with alerts triggered as soon as a drone breaches restricted airspace. The system then autonomously executes RF cyber-takeovers, ensuring officials retain full control throughout the incident.
Crucially, EnforceAir provides flexibility. Whether mounted on vehicles for mobile operations, set up for tactical use, or deployed in stationary configurations for round-the-clock defense, it adapts to the unique demands of correctional facilities.
Prison officials also gain critical investigative tools. By mapping drone takeoff positions and controller locations, EnforceAir supports law enforcement in tracking down and prosecuting the criminals behind smuggling networks.
D-Fend Solutions’ technology is tested and trusted by government, defense, and law enforcement agencies worldwide. Deployed at sensitive sites including airports, borders, military bases, and major events, EnforceAir’s proven ability to neutralize rogue drones safely and effectively makes it ideally suited for the prison environment, where the consequences of contraband are immediate and severe.
At its core, D-Fend Solutions is built on four principles: control, safety, focus, and future-readiness. For prisons, this translates into uninterrupted continuity, improved security, reduced violence and protection for staff and inmates from the dangers introduced by drone smuggling.
Drones have transformed contraband smuggling, granting criminals an unprecedented reach into prisons. As threats escalate in frequency and sophistication, prisons can no longer rely on legacy countermeasures. The future demands a proactive, cyber-driven defense that neutralizes aerial threats with precision, safety, and operational continuity.
By enabling authorities to safely mitigate rogue UAVs, gather intelligence on operators, and maintain seamless facility operations, EnforceAir sets a new standard for prison security, stopping smuggling before contraband ever touches the ground.
Criminals use small, commercially available drones to carry packages containing drugs, phones, and weapons over prison walls. These flights often occur at night, allowing smugglers to drop contraband directly into prison yards while operating safely outside the perimeter.
Cyber-based counter-drone systems like EnforceAir safely take control of unauthorized drones mid-flight and guide them to secure landing zones, preventing disruptions to prison communications and daily operations.
Radars, cameras, acoustic sensors, and jammers struggle in correctional environments. They either misidentify drones, require line of sight, fail in noisy conditions, or risk interfering with essential prison communications. These methods cannot provide safe, selective, and continuous protection.
Drones allow criminals to bypass physical barriers and deliver multiple payloads within minutes. The rise in drone-related incidents has fueled violence, drug circulation, and organized criminal activity inside prisons, making effective counter-drone defense a critical priority.
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