A network of current and former Georgia inmates used drones to smuggle drugs and other contraband into state prisons, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing charges against nearly two dozen people.

Twenty-three people were charged in two separate indictments that were unsealed Wednesday. All except six of those charged were former or current inmates of the state’s prison system, federal prosecutors said.

Twenty-two people named in the indictments are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute marijuana and methamphetamine, which carries a statutory penalty of 10 years to life in prison, prosecutors said. The 23rd person was charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking crime, prosecutors said.

“These indictments identify networks of individuals determined to introduce into prisons controlled substances and other contraband that compromise the safety and security of individuals who are held in those facilities and those employed there, and further endanger members of the outside public,” said Jill E. Steinberg, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

Beginning as early as 2019, prosecutors said, inmates used contraband cellphones to communicate with the outside and to coordinate the sale of drugs, cellphones and other contraband that were to be airdropped via a drone onto a prison yard. Such activities carried on for about five years, until last month, prosecutors said.

The correspondence between the prisoners and their associates resulted in several charges of unlawful use of communication devices, the unsealed indictments show.