Smugglers’ plan

SAO PAULO — A plot to smuggle cellular telephones into a prison yard using a remote-control model helicopter has been foiled after Brazilian police officers discovered the high-tech toy in the trunk of a car outside a maximum-security lockup.

Police announced Monday they had confiscated the one yard-long model chopper near the Presidente Venceslau penitentiary in Sao Paulo state and arrested four people riding in the car.

Attached to the helicopter’s base was a basket-like container with nine cell phones wrapped in a disposable diaper, a police statement said. Another five cell phones were found inside the car trunk.

"The cell phones were obviously for jailed gang leaders who would use them to coordinate bank robberies and kidnappings and set up drug deals,” police Sgt. Ricardo Jock told the Globo TV network.

Police said one of the suspects arrested on Sunday acknowledged receiving $5,000 to buy and prepare the helicopter, and that he would have received the same amount again for landing it inside the prison.

Imprisoned Brazilian gangsters use cell telephones to coordinate activity outside and inside the prison system.


by the associated press