Investigation into cell phones and drugs from the sky: how the trafficking of “enhanced” drones to Neapolitan prisons works, earnings of up to 10 thousand euros a day for the pilots

A drone, an almost invisible nylon thread, a hanging envelope. In, three smartphones, two hundred grams of hashish and about four grams of crack. It is the last shipment to go off course and end up on the pavement, even before it reaches the hands of the recipients: the inmates of the Poggioreale prison. This time, it was the police who recovered her.

A drone recovered with drugs or phones, or fallen during the journey, is tangible proof of a complex supply chain: someone plans the flight, prepares the load, identifies the take-off points and studies the vulnerabilities of the prison context.

Already in 2024 one of the main investigations had brought the operational details into focus: night flights, take-offs from terraces or continuously varied neighboring areas, enhanced drones capable of reaching higher altitudes than the standards.

In this context they also emerge specialized figures: pilots, or “dronoists”, equipped with precise technical skills. They are responsible for managing the flight and ensuring delivery. A role which, according to what has been reconstructed in the investigations, is anything but marginal even from an economic point of view. In some cases the fees fluctuate between 700 and 800 euros for a single operation; in others it reaches 3 thousand euros per trip. Up to the stories, intercepted by investigators, of earnings that they would touch 10 thousand euros a day.

«In Secondigliano, drone deliveries were made more frequently, even twice a weekbecause there was greater demand”, he says a collaborator of justice. In a subsequent report he describes the operating methods in detail: «In the Terni prison the drones are flown to the window of the recreation room, open 24 hours a dayand the envelopes are recovered by the prisoners involved in the trafficking. The system is similar in Secondigliano too. When the delivery must take place to the even cells, the person operating the drone positions himself on the pavements of the buildings in front of the main entrance. Usually in the evening. The signal to indicate the window is given with a lighter or with a bat on which a cloth is hung and waved».