McCuskey Joins 21 AGs Urging Drone Powers to Stop FCI McDowell Contraband Drops

West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey joined a 21-member bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general in formally demanding expanded federal drone authority, explicitly naming FCI McDowell as a documented target of aerial contraband deliveries and pointing to West Virginia prosecutions as evidence the threat is active, not theoretical.

The coalition's letter, led by Georgia's attorney general and addressed to the White House Task Force to Restore American Airspace Sovereignty, was submitted April 3. It asks federal leaders to grant state and local law enforcement carefully defined authority to detect, track and, in limited circumstances, disable unmanned aircraft being used to ferry drugs, phones and weapons over prison fences.

McCuskey made clear that West Virginia has already seen criminal cases arise from exactly this conduct. "We have actually arrested and indicted two people in West Virginia for doing this under our former U.S. Attorney in the southern district, so it's actually happened here and actually happens here," he said, citing drone drops at federal facilities including FCI McDowell in Welch.

He argued the existing legal framework is the central obstacle for officers trying to intercept those flights in real time. "We need laws that make it easier for us to prosecute people who are doing this," McCuskey said. "I don't believe our prison officers have the sufficient authority to remove these drones or to use technology to thwart efforts to move drugs into the prison population."

Under current federal statute, only a narrow set of agencies may legally track and neutralize drone activity, leaving correctional officers constrained even when a suspicious flight is visible overhead. The coalition is asking the task force to extend cooperative authority to state and local partners under specific, bounded conditions.

Twenty states signed alongside West Virginia, including Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, a roster that crosses regional and political lines and reflects how broadly the problem has spread through the country's correctional system.

For McDowell County, the stakes are concrete. FCI McDowell ranks among the county's largest federal employers, and security disruptions inside the facility carry consequences beyond the perimeter: staff safety, coordination with Welch-area emergency services, and the long-standing relationship between the prison and surrounding communities all factor in. Any federal rule change granting new counter-drone tools to state or local agencies would almost certainly draw in law enforcement serving McDowell and neighboring counties.

Drone smuggling has grown into a documented national problem as the hardware required to fly contraband over a fence has become cheap and widely available. The task force, standing up under the current administration's airspace sovereignty initiative, now has a formal multistate record demanding it act.