N.C. Police Officer's Traffic Stop Discovers Possible Plan to Smuggle Drugs into Jail by Drone

A phony license plate led North Carolina police uncovered an attempt this week to use a drone to smuggle drugs into a jail.

A Monroe police officer had pulled over a vehicle with a fake license plate at about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, the department stated in a news release. The vehicle's occupants told the officer they were on their way from Ohio to South Carolina in order to do some dolphin watching.

During the stop, the officer uncovered a large quantity of marijuana, THC crumble wax and an oddly wrapped package near a drone. That combination of items, along with fishing line, raised the officer's suspicions, leading to him opening the package.

Individually wrapped bags of marijuana and cocaine-soaked cardstock paper were discovered. A large baggie of fentanyl hidden inside the crumble wax also was found.

According to investigators, the combination of all those items revealed the growing criminal tactic of using drones to drop contraband into prisons and correctional facilities. The suspects in the vehicle—later identified as Dalontae Harris Spears, 31, and Myles Summerville, 33—were taken into custody.

"(A) simple traffic stop prevented a large quantity of dangerous narcotics from potentially reaching a correctional facility, where the consequences could have been devastating to inmates and staff," Chief Rhett Bolen. "Our officers’ attention to detail and commitment to proactive enforcement helped stop something much bigger before it could happen."

Both suspects face charges of felony possession of marijuana, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, trafficking in fentanyl, trafficking in cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.