Texas man charged with using drone to deliver drugs, contraband to prison in Fort Worth

A Texas man accused of flying a drone loaded with drugs and other contraband into a federal prison in Fort Worth was arrested Thursday and charged with a federal crime, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham on Friday.

The drone crashed inside a secure, fenced-in yard at FMC Fort Worth, a federal correctional facility in the south part of the city, and authorities recovered a package containing 46 grams of crystal methamphetamine, 87 grams of pressed THC, two prepaid smartphones, and nine MP3 players.

Federal authorities identified the suspect as Bryant LeRay Henderson, 42, of Smithville, who was arrested at his residence on Thursday. Smithville is 225 miles south of Fort Worth.

Henderson will make his initial appearance Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton.

“Contraband drone deliveries are quickly becoming the bane of prison officials’ existence. Illicit goods pose a threat to guards and inmates alike — and when it comes to cell phones, the threat often extends outside prison walls. We are determined to stop this trend in its tracks,” Meacham said in a Friday news release.

Henderson was charged via criminal complaint with one count of attempting to provide contraband in prison, one count of serving as an airman without an airman’s certificate, and one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

“The criminal element will always take advantage of new opportunities for illegal activity as technology progresses,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno in the Friday news release. “In this instance, excellent collaborative investigation among federal and local agencies led to multiple federal charges and prevented contraband from entering the federal prison system.”

Henderson is accused of flying a DJI Inspire drone into the airspace over FMC Fort Worth just before midnight on May 4. The drone crashed inside a secure, fenced-in yard near the prison’s HVAC shop, according to federal court documents.

Authorities pulled surveillance video from a nearby high school and saw a young man drive up in a red Chevy Tahoe with a Transformers decal on the rear window, remove a drone and a package from the vehicle, launch the drone toward the prison, and then drive off.

Other surveillance footage identified a red Tahoe with an identical Transformers decal. From that footage, authorities were able to pull a license plate number. Two and a half weeks later, officers found the Tahoe abandoned in a travel lane, with its flashers on and hood up. It was impounded and later searched.

Inside the Tahoe, law enforcement officials found Henderson’s debit card, a DJI drone controller, various drone accessories (rechargeable batteries, a propeller box, and dropping mechanisms), 18 smartphones, tobacco products, and vacuum-packed containers with steroid labels connected to a fishing line and a key ring.

Authorities later powered on the controller recovered from the car next to the drone recovered from the prison yard. The devices immediately paired. From the drone, investigators recovered 70 usable flight logs, which included date/time stamps as well as speed, height, and location data.

Law enforcement officials identified four flights that intruded into FMC Fort Worth’s airspace, and another two that intruded into airspace over FCI Seagoville, another federal correctional center southeast of Dallas.

Investigators later queried Henderson’s records and found that the phone was near FMC Fort Worth around the time of the drone cash, and near FCI Seagoville near the time of the drone’s flight into the prison’s airspace.

The Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General queried the FAA’s database and reported that Henderson did not possess an airman’s certification, and that the drone in question was registered to another owner who canceled his registration in August 2018. FAA records confirmed that the federal correctional institutions were restricted flight areas.

Federal officials noted that drone delivery of contraband is an increasingly vexing problem for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and state corrections officials.

Last month, a 44-year-old Houston man was charged in the Eastern District of Texas for allegedly operating a drone over FCI Beaumont in east Texas. In April, a 30-year-old former inmate pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle phones and tobacco into FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey. And last fall, three Atlanta men were sentenced to a year each in federal prison for using drones to smuggle contraband into Telfair State Prison in Georgia.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office – Fort Worth Resident Agency, the Bureau of Prisons Special Investigative Staff, and the Fort Worth Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Dallas Police Department.

If convicted, Henderson faces a maximum of 45 years total in prison: 20 years for attempting to provide contraband in prison, five years for serving as an airman without an airman’s certificate, and 20 years for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.