JERSEY CITY, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- A New Jersey man has been arrested and charged with using drones to smuggle cell phones, tobacco and other contraband material into a federal prison in the state, prosecutors say.
Jason Arteaga-Loayza, 30, of Jersey City, was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and one count of possession of heroin and fentanyl with intent to distribute on Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said.
Arteaga-Loayza, who was an inmate at Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey between June 2017 and September 2018, worked with three other men to smuggle contraband into the facility after he was released, prosecutors said.
Between October 2018 and June 2019, the four men flew drones carrying packages filled with cell phones, cell phone accessories, tobacco, weight loss supplements, eyeglasses and other items over the prison grounds, according to prosecutors.
The drones would drop the items onto the grounds, where they would be “sold to inmates for a profit,” the attorney’s office said.
The group sent the drones into the facility late at night, covering their lights with tape so security guards wouldn’t notice them, prosecutors said.
When law enforcement officers searched Arteaga-Loayza’s home in Jersey City in June 2019, they found packages of empty cell phone boxes, cell phone charges, empty SIM card boxes, several cell phones, a Bugler tobacco box, 20 packets of a prescription opiate, and a bag filled with more than 21 grams of a heroin-fentanyl mix, according to prosecutors.
Arteaga-Loayza’s attorney information wasn’t immediately available on Wednesday.