Posted on 08/18/2017 3:11:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The 2-foot-tall drone carried drugs worth about $46,000 into San Diego
After a drone carrying bags of methamphetamine landed in San Diego, a man was arrested for allegedly smuggling drugs nearby.
The drugs were worth about $46,000 and weighed over 13 pounds, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
On Aug. 8, the agent spotted the remote-controlled drone flying over the U.S.-Mexico border around 11:25 p.m. Other agents in the area were immediately placed on the lookout for the drone, said CBP officials.
“Due to the agents’ heightened vigilance, this drone smuggling scheme was stopped before these dangerous narcotics could enter our communities,” said Acting Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Boone Smith, in a statement.
An agent driving an all-terrain vehicle found the suspect at about 11:40 p.m. near the border at Servano Avenue and Valentino Street.
When the agent went up to the man, he caught him carrying a large open bag filled with plastic-wrapped packages of methamphetamine.
The CBP agent arrested the man and searched the surrounding area, about two miles west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. As he investigated the scene, he discovered a drone hidden in the bushes. The drone was about 2 feet tall.
CBP officials said the man was later identified as a 25-year-old U.S. citizen.
Source: Follow us: @nbcsandiego on Twitter | NBCSanDiego on Facebook
Kinda surprised it took this long; however, this is probably the first one that they’ve actually CAUGHT!
Works for smuggling drugs, but prolly won’t work so well for people smuggling. /s
Well it sounded like a good idea.
Seems kinda stupid to me on several levels. In the first place, if you’re going to take the risk of smuggling you should only smuggle very high value items. $46,000 dollars? Really? That’s what he going to go to prison for? A similar weight of cocaine could be worth half a million or more. Second, why use a hovering drone and stage the retrieval in a border area where law enforcement is thick on the ground. Better to use a fixed wing drone and land it as far as possible north of the border.
In Michigan, 3 people were arrested Wednesday for attempting to bring in drugs and a cell phone by drone. This happened at the Richard Handlon correctional facility in Ionia.
CC
>>Seems kinda stupid to me on several levels. In the first place, if you’re going to take the risk of smuggling you should only smuggle very high value items. $46,000 dollars?<<
Risk/Reward. One would think the risk would be extremely low — how do you tie someone to a drone in the wild? Also the risk of something going wrong is pretty high with a drone as it starts to get BVR. I am not sure the tech (at this level) is stable enough to risk a million dollar run.
I wonder how they caught him and made the link.
Says in the article he was right near the border carrying a big bag. Have you been to Laredo, Nogales, San Ysidro or any of those other border towns lately? You really don't expect to see hikers.
Stand him against a wall and shoot him.
there is a rc field about another mile south of where he was caught he was in a residential area known for smuggling
Trial Balloon? I dunno. ;)
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