Hayley Price, 38, and her daughter Kaci Stones, 20, were attempting to drop drugs behind the prison walls of HMP Parc in South Wales.
The cannabis was intended for convicted drug trafficker Shaun Lau to sell to other inmates from his cell.
But the drugs drop failed when the drone missed its target and smashed into a tree yards from the prison walls in August 2023.
Footage shows the mum and daughter using a torch to hunt for the drone before being stopped by police after prison staff raised the alarm.
Officers searched their car and found more than 1.1kg of cannabis bundles wrapped in cling film as well as mobile phones and SIM cards.
A search of Hayley Price’s home in Sherwood, Notts., found traces of cocaine, cannabis, MDMA and heroin as well as deal bags and scales.
Mobile phone messages also revealed Price boasting about raking in £29,000 in one month from Lau in order to buy 1kg of cocaine.
Officers then worked tirelessly on the mobile phone devices they seized to understand the full scale of the operation.
What they uncovered was a large-scale Class A and B drugs operation, including the sale of a ‘super heroin’ mixed with fentanyl.
The two year operation revealed the gang’s criminal empire was run jointly by Lau and fellow drug trafficker Daniel Yeboah.
They attempted to flood Nottinghamshire with drugs including the lethal ‘super heroin’.
The pair were in close contact with Hayley Price who would ensure the drugs were collected and distributed.
As well as recruiting her daughter into the gang, she also enlisted her own mum Angela, 61, to help smuggle drugs into the UK.
On one occasion, Angela was paid £250 to receive half a kilo of cocaine hidden in biscuits.
The drug drop was rumbled when it was intercepted by Border Force officers at Gatwick Airport.
Police discovered Yeboah was one of the wholesale suppliers of Class A drugs to the gang, supplying Price with cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and cannabis.
Yeboah directed Price where drugs were to be collected from, using an illegally held phone in prison at HMP Buckley Hall.
The brazen dealer even posted pictures of himself on social media using the phone from his cell.
Both Lau and Yeboah continued running their drug empire after being freed from prison.
When Lau was released in December 2023, he continued to operate a successful drugs business with the help of his right-hand man Shiero Marquis, 36.
The pair ran a drugs line selling crack cocaine and heroin and the supply of bulk quantities of cocaine and cannabis.
When Marquis was arrested in March 2025, his car contained nearly six kilograms of cannabis.
Police estimated the drugs operation was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Other key players included Lieran Dawes, 30, whose role was to facilitate drug deals arranged by Yeboah from his prison cell.
Dawes was Yeboah’s man on the outside, responsible for storing bulk quantities of heroin and cocaine, fentanyl and other dangerous class B synthetic substances and collect cash for the purchased drugs.
The ten members of the gang were arrested and charged with a catalogue of crimes including conspiracy to supply drugs and drug smuggling.
When Yeboah was arrested at this home in Nottingham he was wearing a football shirt with his drug nickname ‘Shota’ emblazoned on the back.
The group were jailed for a combined total of nearly 90 years at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday.
Detective Inspector James McDonagh said: “Lau and Yeboah have shown a complete disregard for the justice system, brazenly running their drugs operations from their prison cells.
“On their release, they continued to peddle drugs, with no attempt whatsoever in changing their lives around.
“Both are not clever individuals. They have always found themselves caught by police, hauled back before the courts and straight back into prison.
“When we executed a warrant at Yeboah’s address, he came into custody wearing a football shirt with ‘Shota’ on the back.
“This was the name he referred to himself on incriminating mobile phone texts organising the drug deals.”
Yeboah and Lau were each jailed for 20 years while Hayley Price was sentenced to ten years behind bars.
Her daughter Kaci Stones was given a 15 month suspended sentence while Hayley’s mum Angela was jailed for three-and-a-half years while
Det Insp McDonagh added: “Hayley Price was also a major part of this enterprise and a willing participant, who did not care that she was attempting to flood the streets of our city and county with a super heroin that had the potential to seriously harm the end user.
“She was even tallying up how much she could make from the product and even recruited her mum and daughter into the operation, who were also happy with the arrangements.
“Their motives – sheer greed, with a complete disregard for the impact their crimes would have on their community.”
