A joint task force in Kingston has been targeting drones delivering contraband into prisons.

A basketball packed with tobacco and cellphones sits on a t able next to a drone equipped with a mechanism for dropping deep-sea fishing lures, repurposed to deliver contraband instead.

Arranged around those items are piles of tightly wrapped packages reeking of pot, a handful of knives and more phones, each about the size of a thumb. The display represents just a fraction of the spoils seized by a pilot project targeting drone smuggling at prisons in Kingston, Ont.

The display is a testament to the success of the program, but also evidence of the ever-evolving challenge facing police and corrections staff, as inmates and organized crime groups innovate new ways to smuggle drugs and weapons behind bars.

For the past nine months, a joint task force made up of local police and correctional staff has been working on both sides of the prison walls to stop the flow of illegal goods and arrest those behind it.

It's the first team of its kind in Canada to specifically target drone smuggling this way.

"Kingston is a prison town," said Sgt. Jonas Bonham. "It just made sense for us to join forces and start doing it together."

Sgt. Jonas Bonham is head of the Kingston Police Intelligence Unit, which has been targeting drone smuggling at prisons around the city.