A California man has been sentenced to over a decade in prison for attempting to use a drone to deliver balloons stuffed with methamphetamine to people in a state penitentiary, officials announced last week. 

According to a March 20 news release from the Eastern District of California U.S. Attorney’s Office, 28-year-old Jorge Narvaez admitted to using an Autel EVO II Pro V3 drone to attempt to deliver drugs to North Kern State Prison in June 2024. That year, Narvaez packed two balloons with meth and dropped them over a prison yard, the release said. When two prison officers recovered the contraband balloons and sent their contents to a laboratory, they discovered that they contained 21.4 grams of methamphetamine. 

Officers also discovered that this wouldn’t be Narvaez’s only delivery attempt. 

That same day, Narvaez launched the drone a second time, equipping it with three “similarly packaged balloons” of meth, the news releases said. However, the drone’s journey was unsuccessful: It crashed into a field near the prison, where officers recovered it. After sending the substances to a lab, officials confirmed that the balloons were filled with 49.6 grams of meth. In October 2025, Narvaez pleaded guilty to running the delivery scheme. He has been sentenced to 12 years, 7 months in prison.  

The EVO II Pro V3 — which is capable of flying at 27 mph, building 3-D maps in real time, and staying in the air for over 30 minutes — is touted for its “maximum performance” and the “endless possibilities” that come with it, according to the manufacturer’s website. Investigators were able to identify Narvaez because the drone, which captures images in 4K, recorded footage of him operating it. Â