A 33-year-old Little Elm man known by the street name “Chains” was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in federal prison for leading a conspiracy that used drones to fly methamphetamine and cellphones over prison walls for resale to inmates. Tyler Joseph Gatten pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, and a federal judge handed down the sentence on Oct. 28.
U.S. District Judge Sean D. Jordan sentenced Gatten to 300 months, or 25 years, in federal prison, according to FOX 4 News. Prosecutors said Gatten led a scheme that used drones to smuggle kilogram quantities of methamphetamine and cellphones into Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities, with members of a white supremacist gang allegedly reselling the contraband to inmates once it landed inside. The case was investigated as part of the Homeland Security Task Force, FOX 4 News reported.
Court information described Gatten as a kilogram-quantity drug trafficker, according to a report from Click2Houston. Gatten was first arrested in February 2022, following an indictment tied to a conspiracy that prosecutors say began in 2021 and involved at least a kilogram of heroin and methamphetamine, per the Denton Record-Chronicle.
A Second Scheme Surfaced While Gatten Awaited Trial
While he sat in pretrial detention, Gatten was indicted again in 2024 in a separate drug-conspiracy case, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported. That second scheme allegedly involved inmates and corrupt correctional officers smuggling cellphones and synthetic drugs into federal holding facilities. Participants reportedly mailed drug-soaked paper disguised as fictitious legal documents to get the contraband past screening, the outlet's report notes.
Gatten received a 20-year prison sentence in that second case, which will run concurrently with his 25-year sentence in the drone conspiracy, according to the same report. Judge Jordan also ordered five years of supervised release once Gatten completes his prison term.
Drones Have Become a Growing Headache for Texas Prisons
Gatten's case is not the only recent instance of drone-run contraband hitting a Texas facility. Seven civilians, including two former correctional officers, were arrested in connection with a drone-driven contraband pipeline at the Mark W. Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony, roughly 12 miles west of Palestine, following a January 2026 interdiction operation, according to CBS News Texas. Authorities seized more than 100 cellphones along with methamphetamine, synthetic cannabinoids and other narcotics during that operation, the station reported. It is not established whether those arrests are connected to Gatten's federal case.
The threat isn't confined to Texas. In Pennsylvania, 43-year-old Tiffany Walsh pleaded guilty in September to possessing a controlled substance with intent to distribute and attempting to operate an unlicensed aircraft, admitting her role in a plot with Bryan Petry to drone-drop drugs and phones into the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary, PennLive reported. Investigators who searched the pair's vehicle found 15 new cellphones, a dozen chargers, syringes, loose tobacco, a controlled substance, drone batteries and night-vision goggles, according to the outlet, and Petry said he stood to collect $20,000 had the drop gone through.
A Pattern That Stretches Back Years
A smuggling ring in Ohio was running drone drops into state prisons as far back as spring 2021, according to The Marshall Project. Investigators there tied the operation to 11 intercepted drops at five prisons between May and October of that year, and one participant estimated the ring attempted somewhere between 100 and 120 drops overall, with 50 to 70 landing successfully across eight or nine facilities. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction had layered drone-detection technology in place, the Marshall Project noted, but federal aviation rules kept the agency from jamming signals, seizing control of the drones or shooting them down.
The National Institute of Justice has flagged drones as a growing concern for correctional facilities already contending with contraband weapons, drugs and phones smuggled through more traditional routes. For now, Gatten's 25-year sentence stands as one of the stiffer penalties handed down in connection with the tactic, closing out a case that began with his 2022 arrest and spanned two separate federal indictments before Wednesday's sentencing.
