ERSOU Secures Multiple UK Convictions Using Cellebrite Drone Forensics

ERSOU, the UK’s Eastern Region Special Operations Unit, used Cellebrite drone forensics to support multiple convictions — including a six-year sentence for a drone-based prison contraband network and the first-of-its-kind UK conviction for serial UAV flight violations. The cases demonstrate how forensic data extracted from recovered drones — flight telemetry, flight paths and onboard media — can build prosecution-ready evidence packages without relying on lab turnaround time.

The Challenge

Drones have become one of the most difficult threats for law enforcement to counter not because they are hard to find, but because finding them is only the beginning. Drone forensics — the extraction and analysis of flight logs, telemetry and onboard media from recovered UAVs — enables investigators to identify operators, reconstruct flight paths and build prosecution-ready evidence packages. A recovered drone is an inert piece of hardware until someone can extract what it knows: where it flew, when it flew and who was controlling it. For agencies without on-site forensic capability, that intelligence waits in an evidence bag while the people behind the operation move on. 

The Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU), part of the UK’s Regional Organised Crime Unit network, needed a reliable, field-deployable solution for UAV examination that could keep pace with an increasingly sophisticated and prolific drone threat. 

The Solution

ERSOU adopted Cellebrite’s CFID (Covert Forensic Imaging Device) and drone forensics capabilities as its primary tool for UAV examination. Daniel Hurley, Digital Forensic Examiner at ERSOU, has led the unit’s drone forensics work across a growing caseload of UAV-related offences. 

“It’s been our go-to tool for the examination of UAV. It’s offered a simple, plug-and-play solution for extraction, decoding, and exporting. But where more technically challenging data extractions are required, the UAV teardown instructions have been invaluable.”
— Daniel Hurley, Digital Forensic Examiner, ERSOU 

The Results

Cellebrite’s drone forensics capability has directly contributed to multiple convictions across a range of offences in the United Kingdom, including prison incursions, criminal damage and UAV flight violations.

Case 1: Drone-based contraband network targeting prisons across England, Wales and Scotland

Kaine Jones, 28, of Birmingham, was sentenced to six years at Worcester Crown Court following an investigation in which digital forensics linked seized devices to a sophisticated drone operation targeting custodial facilities across three countries. Telematics recovered from a laptop revealed repeated flight paths to multiple prisons, while phone examinations uncovered drug pricing conversations and photographic evidence connecting Jones directly to the drones involved in the operation.

Case 2: First-of-its-kind conviction for serial drone violations 

Christopher McEwen, 46, of Norwich, pleaded guilty to 17 drone-related offences at Norwich Magistrates Court in February 2026 in what is believed to be the first conviction of its kind in the United Kingdom. The charges included flying a drone over emergency services responding to a major industrial fire, photographing prisoners at HMP Norwich from the air and repeated breaches of flight restriction zones near Norwich Airport. Analysis of drone data documented 44 flights over a six-month period, with 39 exceeding legal altitude limits and 33 occurring within restricted airspace. 

In Their Words

“It has directly resulted in multiple convictions in the UK, relating to a broad range of offences, including prison incursions, criminal damage and UAV flight offences.” 
— Daniel Hurley, Digital Forensic Examiner, ERSOU 

See What Cellebrite Drone Forensics Can Do for Your Agency

ERSOU’s results reflect what becomes possible when agencies have the capability to extract intelligence from recovered drones quickly, reliably and in the field. Whether your mission is investigating a crime scene, building a prosecution-ready evidence package or securing a correctional facility, Cellebrite gives your team the tools to turn a recovered drone into a closed case.