In Layman’s terms, contrabands are products that are illegally brought into a facility or a country, such as smuggled cars. But the dictionary defines contraband as smuggling.
In prisons in Great Britain, contrabands get in like nothing’s happened. In fact, like Uber Eats deliveries. Ridesharing Forum has more.
The New York Times first reported about this discovery that smuggled or illegal products like mobile gadgets, drugs, and tobacco get in like Uber Eats.
They go unnoticed because they are transported as drones, and interestingly, yet oddly, security in the air isn’t as tight as security on the ground.
“Shortly before 3 a.m., the sedan pulled up on a residential London street. In surveillance footage used later in court, a man can be seen leaving the vehicle and tending to an object on the ground,” the correspondent, Lizzie Dearden, reported to Ridesharing Forum. "Moments later, the object – a drone – rises into the air and disappears.”
It’s like a scene from “Grand Theft Auto”!
The prison in question is Wormwood Scrubs.
Wormwood Scrubs – otherwise pertained to as “The Scrubs,” or HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs – is a Category B men’s prison situated in the White City area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, Great Britain. It is operated under the king’s behest.
Activities here started in the 19th century.
Like how letters between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots were controversial, these contraband products were able to get in like they were deliveries.
The arrested operator of the drone, 29-year-old Shafaghatullah Mohseni, broke his silence, saying that the products were worth $36,000, and were distributed to inmates. They were paid for by their friends and relatives, interestingly again.
Even weight-loss injections are being smuggled in. After all, prisoners need a life, too, what do you think?
“They’re bringing in all sorts of stuff,” Tom Wheatley, president of the Prison Governors’ Association of Britain statedin an interview. “Anything that has value in the prison, that someone in the prison wants, that they can’t get through legitimate means.”
What’s worse, these contrabands through drones started in 2014, and have hit a record of over 1,700 as of March 2025, British government figures pointed out.
“Frankly, as if by Uber Eats,” remarked Judge James Lofthouse, who sentenced Mohseni in early March to five years and three months in prison.
The biggest question is, why are these prisoners allowed to order, or why are they allowed to communicate that way with their friends and relatives outside?
Corruption in prison isn’t exclusive to the United Kingdom, as there are prisons in Southeast Asia and South America wherein it appears that inmates are the authority. For more delivery-related news, share this story around online with your family and friends!