Inmate Masterminded Smuggling of ‘Spice’ Into Jail Hidden in Legal Correspondence, Jury Told

Alex Mullings also used drones to bring in dozens of tiny mobile phones

A man prepares to smoke "Spice", a synthetic marijuana drug, along a New York City street on Aug. 5, 2015. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

LONDON—An inmate masterminded an ingenious plan to smuggle the drug spice into several prisons by dissolving it and then impregnating legal correspondence with the solution, a jury has been told.

Alex Mullings, 32, also dreamed up a scheme to smuggle packages of drugs and dozens of tiny Zanco mobile phones into Swaleside prison in Kent by drone in the middle of the night, a trial at Southwark Crown Court heard.