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Drug dealer flew drone carrying $75K in opioids, porn-filled USB drive into prison yard

A female drug trafficker used a drone to deliver a USB drive containing pornography and more than $75,000 worth of opioids to an Australian prison, where the unmanned aircraft crashed, a court heard this week.

Cheyenne Petryszyn, 27, appeared in Brisbane Supreme Court on Friday for her sentencing after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated supply of dangerous drugs in a correctional facility.

Petryszyn’s two co-defendants, Cory Sinclair Keleher, 33, and Bradley Knudson, 37, also pleaded guilty, reported Australian Associated Press via the Guardian.

Staffers at an unspecified Queensland prison found the wreckage of a drone next to an exercise yard on the morning of April 1, 2022.

Nearby, they recovered a sealed bag crammed with 79 strips of the opioid buprenorphine, 0.94 grams of methamphetamine and the USB drive that was found to contain pornography, prosecutors said.

Petryszyn was on parole at the time of the doomed drone flight and was later remanded to custody to serve out an 11-year-old sentence for an unrelated drug trafficking conviction.

A crown prosecutor told the court the woman’s role in the plot was to obtain the drugs for Knudson to sell inside the prison, where a single strip of buprenorphine can fetch close to $1,000.

Petryszyn and Knudson tried to disguise their phone conversations about the smuggling plot by talking about fishing, but after the drone debacle, the woman mentioned in a call that “everything crashed and burned.”

Attorneys for Keleher and Knudson appealed for leniency, arguing that both their clients had difficult childhoods.

A lawyer representing Petryszyn argued against a “crushing” sentence for his client, who is already serving a lengthy prison term.

Justice Elizabeth Wilson sentenced the 27-year-old to 16 months with immediate parole eligibility.

Knudson and Keleher were sentenced to 2 years and 16 months in prison, respectively, but both were ordered released on parole Friday.

Knudson and Keleher were sentenced to 2 years and 16 months in prison, respectively, but both were ordered released on parole Friday.

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