[KeyLargo]

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.

[devane617]

Not surprised by this...

[Eye of Unk]

I’m surprised these drug lords havn’t adopted something from the PLO or other groups that send hundreds of rockets into Israel, with some electronics and small mods these rockets can be steered, and I know for a fact the viability of building 1/4 scale RC aircraft that can operate with an on board camera. They can fly across the border and literally drop the cargo and return just like a bomber run. Or just go full scale.

[KeyLargo]

AVIATION PING

[umgud]

Geez, those drug lords sure got some dedicated employees.

[angkor]

They've got nothing on drugrunner Drew Thornton from Kentucky, who ran the largest coke smuggling operation on the East Coast in the 70's and 80's.

IIRC he finally was reduced to ***parachuting*** from his planes with his big loads of coke, and on his final "drop" he had a parachute failure and plastered directly into someone's suburban driveway. Ouch.

Sally Denton wrote the definitive book about Thornton and his gang (he was a Lexington KY policeman), and it's a really great read:

The Bluegrass Conspiracy: An Inside Story of Power, Greed, Drugs and Murder .

[SteamShovel]

It is one of the newest tools smugglers are using to get drugs across the U.S.-Mexican border.

How long until the RATS make ultralights illegal to stop this?

[JimRed]

Low altitude, slow moving, easy to hit TARGETS!

[mefistofelerevised]

If dumb shits here didn’t buy the junk THERE WOULDN’T BE A PROBLEM!

[Little Ray]

Semi-submersables, ultra-lights? What's the next drug smuggling system? Rockets?

[Travis McGee]

Ping

[U S Army EOD]

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.