Posted on 03/07/2009 6:05:27 AM PST by KeyLargo
Ultralight Aircraft Emerging Trend in Drug Trafficking
Posted: March 6th, 2009 11:00 AM GMT-05:00 U.S. Customs and Border Protection
In December, three government helicopters trailed the shown ultralight that had 350 pounds of marijuana strapped it and hit power lines before crashing in Tucson, Ariz.
EMILY BAZAR
Farmworkers who arrived at a San Luis, Ariz., lettuce field the morning of Nov. 17 found a grisly scene: the wreckage of an ultralight aircraft and the body of the pilot in the seat.
There were also six bundles -- 141 pounds -- of marijuana, San Luis Police Sgt. Gerardo Torres says.
"I've been working here the last seven years, and I haven't seen anything like that," he says.
An ultralight is a one-person motorized aircraft that resembles a hang glider. It is one of the newest tools smugglers are using to get drugs across the U.S.-Mexican border.
Flying drugs into the USA isn't new, but use of ultralights is an emerging trend, says Michael Kostelnik, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) assistant commissioner. They fly low under cover of darkness and are harder to see on radar than larger planes. CBP has intercepted three drug-hauling ultralights since October, he says.
"This is a new twist," Kostelnik says. "You're really at war with drug cartels on this. They change tactics, and we have to change tactics in the same way."
The drug trade along the border has spawned a never-ending cat-and-mouse game between smugglers and law enforcement officers. The game has gotten harder for smugglers since the Department of Homeland Security beefed up border enforcement, adding agents, fencing, cameras and other detection technology.
There are 18,000 Border Patrol agents now, compared with fewer than 11,000 five years ago, the agency says. There are 608 miles of vehicle and pedestrian fencing, compared with about 140 in October 2006.
In the Border Patrol's Tucson sector, responsible for 262 miles of the border, smugglers have been testing novel tactics, including building ramps to boost drug-filled cars over 4- to 6-foot barriers, field operations supervisor Omar Candelaria says. "We're being more effective and they're trying alternate means to get around us," Candelaria says.
Ultralights are limited, though. They have a top speed of 60 to 65 mph and can't carry heavy loads, says Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association. Carrying too much weight could contribute to a crash, he says. "Ultralights are not something that could be used to transport huge, copious amounts of any product, legal or illegal," he says.
An ultralight's skeleton is usually made of metal or carbon tubing and the wings from nylon fabric. Although an ultralight may be detectable on radar, depending on the type of radar and the plane's altitude, "it leaves a smaller impression on radar than a larger aircraft does," he says.
In October, a low-flying ultralight carrying 223 pounds of marijuana was spotted on radar crossing the border about 12 miles west of Nogales, Ariz., CBP spokesman Juan Muooz-Torres says. A helicopter trailed it until it landed outside Tucson. The Mexican pilot was captured and pleaded guilty to drug charges. He is awaiting sentencing.
In December, radar detected an ultralight also near Nogales. An unmanned CBP aircraft joined by three helicopters followed it, Muooz-Torres says. The ultralight clipped power lines near a Tucson casino before crashing, paralyzing the Mexican pilot. He was deported.
The aircraft was carrying 350 pounds of marijuana, he says.
Those ultralights were outfitted with cages to hold the drugs. The CBP believes the pilots intended to fly over a designated spot, pull a lever and drop the load before heading back over the border, Muooz-Torres says.
The pilot who crashed in November may have had trouble opening the cage, which could have contributed to the crash, he says.
Kostelnik acknowledges that ultralights probably have made it successfully into the USA. He says CBP is increasing air and ground patrols and interviewing apprehended pilots about the smuggling networks.
"Do I think we get 100% of everything? The answer is no," he says. "We're redoubling our efforts to try to ensure we get as much as we can."
That one looks like it is attempting to smuggle whooping cranes from Wisconsin to Florida.
It’s not just pot that is the problem. I’m sorry, but I think people who smoke pot are not the brightest bulbs on the tree. Should they legalize cocaine too? How about heroin? Might as well legalize crank, it’s popular with dumb shits too.
Yup. That'll just move the ultralight manufacturies across the border.
Ping
Too cool,
Thanks for the heads up.
Always looking for new ways to make a buck.
You can build a fiberglass canard airplane that cane hold 4 people or about 1200 pounds and is nearly invisible to radar.
With about as much radar imprint as this foolish stuff.
Man o man Neidermeyer,
Sorprised you haven’t heard of some kids steeling a L.S.A. with a B.R.S. and go joy flying and pop the chute just for grins.
People like you kill me. You refuse to learn anything from prohibition and you refuse to study US history or refuse to learn from it if you do. All the drugs you mentioned, plus Opium, were once legal in the US(with the possible exception of heroin).
We had no more addicts(probably less per thousand people)than we do now. The big difference between then and now is that we now have a huge underworld drug culture, criminal gangs, that get all their financing through the sale of illegal drugs and the most money is in MJ, because it is easy to grow, the penalties if one is caught are less and the biggest drug market in this country is for MJ.
Now, I know you are going to come back with a bunch of moralistic BS but please spare us both the effort, you have had your say and I am having mine.
I know I am right, you feel you are right, you are not. You are coming from a moralistic standard and not using your brain, the same type of thinking that brought us Prohibition, Al Capone, Bugs Moran and many other rum runners of the 1920s and '30s.
The addicts are still going to get their drugs, they will commit crimes, kill people if they have to, but they will get them.
The war on drugs is stupid and costly and provides many politicians with a kickback income which is why you will never see the end of the war on drugs.
Do you really think the reason they won't close the borders is because they think the illegals deserve to come here for a better life? You actually think Politicians are that altruistic?
They keep the borders open and make no real effort to stop drug runners, witness Ramos and Campeon(spelling?), because of kickback money. These two agents conviction wasn't about illegals it was about threatening some politicians drug money supply and a warning was sent to all border patrol agents that they better not exceed their arrest limit for each month!
legalize it all. Over half of the prison population is due to drug crimes and drug related crimes. The small percentage that want help we should give help. The vast majority will not want help but will stay in a drug induced haze until they kill themselves sooner rather than later and the later will be at our expense.
Note: When prohibition was ended the actual consumption of alcohol went down not up.
So how do you plan to reduce demand? (Hint: THAT ain’t gonna happen, not now, not ever. People have been using recreational substances for millenia. Only in the last century did government have the chutzpa to punish such behaviors, as a means of gaining more control over ALL our lives. Is that what you want, more government, less Constitution?)
As long as anyone using WHATEVER substance, including the dangerous drug, alcohol, does not present a danger to you, why is it any of your business WHAT someone uses?
Go smoke a bowl and chill. I didn’t say I wanted more government regulation, just that a person has to smoke pot to handle life they need to get a life. Oh yeah crank is great stuff. And cocaine and heroin do wonders. I know guys who have smoked pot all of their adult lives and they are lazy and unless. But hey, smoke a bowl and contribute to funding terrorists and murderers and assholes who wreck US park land for profit from cool dudes who smoke pot and watch their lava lamps.
I see you chose not to answer the specific question. Not surprising. And I have never used any recreational substance beyond tobacco and alcohol; tobacco I no longer use at all and alcohol gets past my lips less than once a month. So take your “Go smoke a bowl” and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
In denial I see. Don’t worry, I won’t call the sheriff on you. Smoke if you got’em.
I doubt if any of these are true ultralights and are probably light sport aircraft. Some of these that they used to call ultralights will surprise you what they can do.
I own a Quicksilver GT 500 that will cruise at 90 mph and has a range of over 400 miles. Counting the pilot, you can carry well over 600 pounds in it.
No we shouldn't legalize those other drugs. According to the ONDCP about 62% of the cartel's gross receipts from drugs bound for the U.S. come from marijuana. They actually produce marijuana or purchase it dirt cheap from farmers in Mexico. About 28% of their gross proceeds come from the next biggest seller, cocaine, but they are only the middlemen for cocaine which must first be purchased and smuggled from South America before they bring it here. The drug czar, John Walters, says marijuana is the “bread and butter,” “the center of gravity” for Mexican drug cartels.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022208dnintdrugs.3a98bb0.html
Americans consume more marijuana than all other illegal drugs combined. The black market for illegal drugs is mostly a black market for marijuana. According to our government these Mexican organizations do end up supplying about 90% of the cocaine consumed in this country, along with most of the meth and most of the heroin consumed here, but the big money maker for them is marijuana. The other drugs just piggyback in on the marijuana and go through the same distribution channels. Marijuana sellers often offer their customers these other drugs. That's one of the best ways these organizations have to move their cocaine, meth and heroin. If we legalize marijuana and take it away from these organizations and have licensed producers produce it and have it sold through licensed shops pot smokers will be far less likely to be offered these other drugs. These Mexican drug trafficking organizations will lose out on most of their income and it will be harder for them to move their other far more dangerous drugs.
ok
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