New legislation imposing tough penalties on drug smugglers who use low-flying aircraft

KOLD TUCSON ^ | 5/15/10 | Van Nguyen

[exbrit]

Smugglers have been using ultra-lights, for example, to sneak marijuana into the United States.

According to Customs and Border Protection, officers have confirmed 135 ultra-light drug smuggling attempts over the past year

[Jack Hydrazine]

What if they start using GEVs? How will they then be categorized? As flying really, really low?

[Travis McGee]

How can they stop them, short of shooting them down?

How could you stop terrorists, for that matter? Ultralights can glide for miles, in total silence. If they are made of carbon fiber and fabric, they won't show up very well on radar, I'd think. Just glide over the border, then restart the motor a few miles into the USA, then fly another 100 miles to a RDV point in the desert with a waiting pickup truck.

[Mouton]

Maybe as they increase penalties in proportion to how close to the groud the planes fly they will apply the death sentence to anyone coming over the border in a vehicle??

[exbrit]

Shooting them down sounds like the way to go.

[HiJinx]

You’ve nailed it Trav, this is truly a stealth delivery method.

That the customs guys have IDd 135 attempts this year says two things. Some of the smugglers are really inept at stealth. And there have been a lot more successful attempts.

Many of the attempts that have been discovered were because of crashes. Evidently, they tried to carry much payload in most of those cases.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Next thing you know they’ll be trying to criminalize illegal drugs.

[Liz]

Shooting them down sounds good.

Maybe they’ll throw hot sauce at them....as a warning (/snix).

[GAB-1955]

This sounds like a poor man’s cruise missile, too.

[HiJinx]

Ping!

Wonder if it would work for smuggling people, too? They make 2-seaters, right?

[layman]

tough penalties on drug smugglers who use low-flying aircraft

Yeah ... but would it be enforced if the pilots are illegal Mexicans? Wouldn't that amount to the dreaded 'profiling'?

[CodeToad]

Small truck, bring drugs and ultra light, assemble, fly over border 10 miles, land, fold up, leave.

Simple process, but why bother? Just drive over the border. Good watch over the BP and duck around them.

[Boiling point]

I used to fly Ultralights, I wonder if they auction off the ones they seize. Might be able to get a good deal. Cost wise they are similar to boats

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I started writing a novel in the early 1990's about a former aeronautical engineer whose life was destroyed by a mistaken DEA raid on his house - they had the wrong address, but he lost his family and job.

Having worked on cruise missiles and stealth bombers, he went to a drug cartel and started building GPS-guided stealth UAVs for them.

This was before GPS was a consumer device.

[exbrit]

Life imitating art? Do you plan to finish your novel, it sounds like it will be a good read!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Writing a novel is a lot harder than I thought. I am a decent technical writer, but dialog is the most important part of a novel, and I suck at dialog.

So, no, I don't plan on finishing it.

[ASOC]

LOL

Join the club.

You can however find a good editor and get the help you need.

I have some very nice rejection slips but no dough for editorial (co writer, really) support.

You might try it as a short story - it seems that expanding it into a novel shouldn't be too hard.

Good story lines are hard to come by, and unfortunately may have been done before (or nearly so)

See White Plague by Frank Herbert