The tiny drones didn’t have to go far to drop off the narcotics at the Lancaster Church parking lot, where waiting hands would collect the drugs and deliver them to their respective buyers.
But according to authorities, one particular drop was the fatal dose of fentanyl that took the life of a woman in 2023.
Prosecutors said that death led to the arrest of Christopher Patrick Laney, 37, who was sentenced Monday to 14 years in federal prison. In September, he pleaded guilty to using an unregistered drone to deliver a fatal dose to the victim.
According to a 2024 federal indictment, Laney, also known by the nickname “Cranny,” used a drone on multiple occasions from December 2022 to January 2023 to transport fentanyl and other narcotics from his home in Lancaster to a nearby church parking lot.
Prosecutors did not reveal the name of the church, but property records show Laney lived near several churches, with the nearest church located 600 feet from his five-bedroom home and the farthest 1,500 feet, or less than half a mile.
Federal prosecutors said someone would collect the drugs from the drone before handing them over to buyers. Those included at least one woman, identified by federal officials only as Zeke, who died of a fentanyl overdose in January 2023. Prosecutors said the exchange was captured by the drone’s camera.
Federal authorities said they searched Laney’s home the following month and found methamphetamine, fentanyl, and several firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle lacking a serial number, commonly known as a “ghost gun”, as well as two 9-millimeter semiautomatic ghost-gun pistols.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Drone Exploitation Center investigated the case.
