TALLAHASEE, Fla. — A 36-year-old Jacksonville man described as a career criminal will spend 81 years in prison after prosecutors said he used drones to smuggle drugs and other contraband into Florida prisons.<\/p>\n
Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the Office of Statewide Prosecution secured the 81-year prison sentence for Mario Crawford.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said Crawford orchestrated a scheme to smuggle drugs and contraband into Florida Department of Corrections facilities using drones.<\/p>\n
The investigation began Sept. 22, 2022, when officers at Century Correctional Institute found a crashed drone with a package of contraband attached. The items included cell phones, SIM cards, charging cords, tobacco, cocaine, methamphetamines, and razor blades, according to deputies.<\/p>\n
Investigators say they worked with the Federal Aviation Administration and traced the drone\u2019s ownership to Crawford.<\/p>\n
In March 2023, Crawford was arrested on charges of introduction or possession of contraband at a state facility, conspiracy to introduce or possess contraband at a state facility, trafficking in over 10 grams of cathinone, illegal use of a drone, and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, according to deputies.<\/p>\n
Investigators say they later identified additional drone deliveries of similar contraband at Liberty Correctional Institute and Okaloosa Correctional Institute, and those incidents also traced back to Crawford.<\/p>\n
On March 12, a jury found Crawford guilty on all counts.<\/p>\n
The case was prosecuted by Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Brian Fernandes and Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Guillermo Vallejo in the First Judicial Circuit of Florida in and for Escambia County.<\/p>\n
Authorities say Crawford\u2019s criminal history includes 49 convictions, including armed burglary, grand theft, various weapons charges, fraud, and trafficking in stolen property.<\/p>\n
Crawford will serve his 81-year sentence in the Florida Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASEE, Fla. — A 36-year-old Jacksonville man described as a career criminal will spend 81 years in prison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-202882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}