A DRUG trafficker who tried to smuggle heroin into a prison by flying a drone over a built-up area has been jailed for more than five years in the first conviction of its kind in Scotland.

John Grant lost control of the aircraft and it crashed with its load of drugs and mobile phones in a residential garden.

The grounded device also contained footage on its camera of Grant adjusting settings on the drone and with GPS co-ordinates of his home address.

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The drone was found by a woman who noticed a lot of string strewn around her back garden near Saughton Prison.

When she began to gather it up a black sock attached to the string fell from the roof of her garden hut. She then found it was attached to a drone wedged between her hut and fence.

She cut open the sock and found three mobile phones, two chargers and a haul of heroin and diazepam.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the heroin was worth £11,000 but its value would soar had it been delivered to the prison.

After Grant, 47, was identified from film recovered from the drone, a search of his home found a further half-kilo of heroin worth £48,000. He admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin between November 5 and 18 last year.

The judge said Grant would have faced a prison term of eight years, but his sentence would be reduced following early guilty pleas.

Grant, a former mechanic, was previously jailed for 44 months for a drug-trafficking offence.

Advocate depute Jim Keegan said that, after the downed drone was recovered, a memory card was found containing images and footage and GPS information.

The prosecutor said: “Footage from the early hours of November 4 showed the accused seated in his living room and operating a remote controller and an electronic tablet to adjust the drone’s settings.”

Mr Keegan said that, during the search of Grant’s home, police also discovered a metal mould for pressing heroin and an iPad used to control the drone.

A box for the drone and a set of instructions were also recovered.

During the search at the house, a woman appeared. She was aware of the attempt to use the drone to drop drugs and phones into the prison.

Mr Keegan said that she “was able to tell the police about the plan that had gone wrong and that the accused was angry and concerned about having lost his drone and its payload”.

Mr Keegan told the court: “It is important to be clear that the DJI Phantom is regarded by the Civil Aviation Authority as an aircraft and not a toy.

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“It falls into the category of a small unmanned surveillance aircraft, due to the data collection capability.”

The prosecutor added: “Any aircraft, once airborne, presents an element of danger to the public as well as aviation. 

“This drone was flown in what is properly termed a congested area. It was flown with its aviation lights covered over so that it could not be readily seen.”

Defence counsel Tony Lenehan said Grant’s drug use had become worse after his last prison term. He added: “He became, what I would describe as, a junior partner or employee in a criminal enterprise.”