Florida women used drone to deliver contraband to prison, deputies say

Mother, daughter confess to trying to smuggle in phones, tobacco, report says

Concetta Didiano (left) and Cassandra Kerr are accused of trying smuggle contraband into a prison using a drone.

INDIANTOWN, Fla. – A Florida mother and daughter were arrested this weekend after deputies said they used a drone to deliver mobile phones and tobacco to a prisoner at Martin Correctional Institution in Indiantown.

Concetta Didiano, 22, and Cassandra Kerr, 40, both of Tampa, face charges of introducing a communications device into a prison and operating a drone inside critical infrastructure.

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According the arrest report, the staff at Martin Correctional Institution noticed the drone hovering above a prison building around 1:30 a.m. Sunday and alerted the Martin County Sheriff's Department.

A few minutes later, a deputy responded to a crash along nearby Southwest Allapattah Road where a car had collided with the drone, disabling it.

Meanwhile, acting on a tip from prison staffers, another deputy found Didiano and Kerr driving a truck slowly about a mile north of the prison, the report said. Kerr told the deputy that she was teaching her daughter how to drive, the report said.

The deputy pressed the women about the recent drone sighting and Kerr admitted to piloting the device, the report said.

"I did it. The remote and the iPad is the backseat," Kerr said, according to the report.

Kerr told deputies that she was delivering mobile phones and tobacco to an inmate inside the prison, the report. Didiano drove the truck while Kerr piloted the drone from the back seat, the report said.

 


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