SC woman planned to drop drugs by drone to Jasper County prison inmates, warrants say

Jake Shore
·3 min read

Police have accused a Summerville woman of plotting to use a drone to drop marijuana and tobacco to inmates at a Jasper County prison, according to authorities.

Shelene Jean Walk, 25, of Summerville was charged on Jan. 19 with one count of marijuana possession with intent to distribute, one count of criminal conspiracy, and one count of attempting to send contraband to prisoners, according to a Friday news release from the S.C. Department of Corrections.

Walk is accused of conspiring with a co-defendant to fly “an unmanned aerial vehicle (Drone) over the facility and dropping the contraband onto the yard of” Ridgeland Correctional Institution, according to warrants.

The co-defendant is an inmate, and charges are pending, according to SCDC spokesperson Chrysti Shain.

The warrants said Walk provided 70 grams of marijuana and a bag with four pounds of tobacco to a SCDC undercover agent.

A relative of Walk listed online, reached on the phone by a reporter, said he could not provide information at this time.

Coiled rolls of barbed wire sit between double fences as the guard tour looms in the background near the front entrance to the S.C. Department of Corrections Ridgeland Correctional Institution.
Coiled rolls of barbed wire sit between double fences as the guard tour looms in the background near the front entrance to the S.C. Department of Corrections Ridgeland Correctional Institution.

Contraband has been finding its way into Ridgeland Correctional for years, according to a 2020 report by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette newspapers.

“What is unusual at Ridgeland is the consistent volume of incidents related to contraband compared to other facilities reviewed,” according to a 2018 report from a prison expert. “For many inmates at Ridgeland, possessing or the attempt to possess contraband appears to outweigh the risk and the perceived [low] probability of being apprehended.”

In 2018, officials with SCDC installed golf course-like netting at Ridgeland and other prisons to prevent contraband from being thrown over prison walls.

“Fighting contraband is an everyday challenge. We work hard to identify and arrest anyone who tries to bring contraband into our prisons, whether it’s with a drone, throwing something over a fence, sending it in the mail, sneaking it in a work vehicle or bringing it in the front gate,” Shain with SCDC wrote in an email. “Inmates and their criminal counterparts on the outside never stop trying to devise new ways to introduce contraband into our prisons.”

Walk is being held in Berkeley County’s detention center, according to online jail records. Court records show a Berkeley County magistrate judge set her bond on Thursday at $50,000 for the contraband charge, $30,000 for the marijuana possession, and $20,000 for the criminal conspiracy.

When we publish mugshots

The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette publishes police booking photos, or mugshots, in the following instances:

  • In situations where a public figure or someone in a position of public trust is arrested

  • In cases where there is an immediate and widespread threat to public safety

  • In cases where the arrested person is accused of a crime reporters have evidence to believe involved numerous, unknown victims

Reporters will avoid using mugshots as lead images for online articles in order to limit their circulation on social media, except in cases where the public is served by the immediate identification of the accused. Reporters and editors may use discretion in situations that don’t meet the criteria outlined in this policy but still present a compelling reason to publish a mugshot.