An ex-con who spent nearly 20 years behind bars is accused of using a drone to deliver contraband to inmates at a Florida prison.
Kaheid Ash, 46, was arrested in Indiantown, Fla. after the Martin County Institution‘s “drone detection system” identified the object that cops believe had been passing over the facility in recent weeks, according to documents obtained by the Smoking Gun.
Detectives had been on the lookout for the source of deliveries like phones and cigarettes following roughly 10 predawn drops in two weeks.
On Wednesday, an investigator spied a suspicious drone over the detention center shortly before 3 a.m. and tracked it to a landing spot on top of an SUV parked just down the road.
When Ash emerged from the vehicle, he told police that he was practicing with his drone in the isolated area because there’s no traffic. He said he’d only been in the vicinity, about 40 miles from his house, once in the past two weeks.
Authorities, however, noted the drone was equipped with a payload release lever and that some of its lights were covered with black tape that made it harder to spot at night.
Ash was ultimately taken into custody after traffic cameras and license plate readers put his SUV in the area of the prison several times since late April, which lined up with the dates the detection system observed a drone matching the suspect’s flying over the facility.
He’s being held without bond pending an initial court appearance.
Prior to his latest arrest, Ash reportedly spent nearly two decades in Florida state prison for a series of armed robberies.
