By Noah Feit
The State
COLUMBIA, S.C. — When a former inmate was arrested Wednesday for using drones to smuggle contraband into a prison in Columbia, it wasn’t the first time he was accused of committing that crime, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a news release.
Quintin Alexander Douglas was already out on bond from charges of flying drones carrying contraband into another South Carolina prison, according to the release.
On Wednesday, the 28-year-old Bethune resident was charged with four counts of criminal conspiracy for flying drones carrying contraband into Broad River Correctional Institution, the S.C. Department of Corrections said.
Those charges stem from four incidents in April and July of 2023, according to the release.
Broad River Correctional Institution is a prison in Richland County on Broad River Road, near the junction with Interstate 20.
It is a male-only close (high-security) and medium-security facility “designed primarily to house violent offenders with longer sentences, and inmates who exhibit behavioral problems,” according to the S.C. Department of Corrections.
Douglas had previously been charged with multiple crimes in August 2023 for flying a drone carrying contraband into McCormick Correctional Institution earlier in the year, the S.C. Department of Corrections said.
When he was arrested last year, Douglas was charged with providing contraband to prisoners, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and criminal conspiracy, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections.
In the incident that happened in January 2023 , Douglas is accused of flying a drone containing tobacco, marijuana, cellphones and other contraband items onto the prison yard at McCormick Correctional, the S.C. Department of Corrections said.
McCormick Correctional is also a men’s-only, high-security institution, according to the S.C. Department of Corrections . It’s about 80 miles west of Columbia .
In 2018, Douglas pleaded guilty to a burglary charge and 10 counts of larceny, Kershaw County court records show. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but after serving two years the rest of the incarceration was to be suspended, according to court records.
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