Inmate’s brother suspected of using drone to drop drugs into North Kern State Prison

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A handball containing methamphetamine. A contraband cellphone. A crashed drone in a pistachio orchard.

Those items — and information obtained from multiple warrants — led investigators to believe the brother of an inmate held at North Kern State Prison used a drone to deliver drugs to the facility.

The drug delivery method outlined in a court filing obtained Tuesday isn’t new.

As stated in the filing, “Over the last two years, (prison investigators) have discovered a high influx of drone drops, which have been detected over the airspace of North Kern State Prison.”

17 News isn’t naming the brothers as charges had not been filed as of Tuesday.

Early June 9, according to the court filing, prison staff were alerted to a drone flying over the facility. They conducted a search of the grounds and found a green handball wrapped in two balloons.

Inside the handball — which had been sliced open before wrapped — was a package containing methamphetamine, according to the filing.

Two days later, staff seized an inmate’s cellphone and obtained a warrant to search its contents.

The messages they found piqued their interest.

The inmate, investigators learned, sent money to a CashApp account for the purchase of a drone and other items.

Armed with another warrant, investigators discovered an Amazon purchase of a drone with a “drone airdrop system,” a dozen green handballs, a cellphone and a SIM card.

The handballs were the same brand and color as the one found on the prison grounds, according to the filing. The name on the Amazon account matched the one on the CashApp account.

The name is not that of the inmate or his brother.

The next development in the investigation came on June 18, when prison staff were contacted by a local farmer who said a drone had crashed in a pistachio orchard. Attached to it was a makeshift pouch holding three green handballs.

Meth was found inside the handballs, according to the filing.

Information extracted from the drone included video taken by and of the pilot. Using the video, investigators identified the pilot — a convicted felon whose brother is incarcerated at the prison, according to the filing.

The latest update came July 26, when a car linked to the pilot led Delano police on a chase. The car hit a curb and became disabled, the driver getting away on foot.

Police searched the car. They found a wallet containing the driver’s license of the pilot, and a drone, according to the filing.

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