politics
U.S. Officials Describe Cartel Use of Commercial Drones at Southern Border
Senior Homeland Security and Defense officials described how cartels have rapidly adopted modified commercial drones to bypass border infrastructure, exploiting low-altitude airspace that offers largely unfettered access. Speakers at the Border Security Expo in Arizona this week outlined both the threats and the federal response, including bulk purchases of drones by Border Patrol.
May 8, 12:36 PM·3m read1 source
Washington ExaminerAudio version
Tap play to generate a narrated version.
Developing·Limited corroboration so far. This page will refresh as more sources emerge.
Officials at the Departments of Homeland Security and War are gravely concerned about the security of the nation’s skies along the land border. They have admitted that the airspace is incredibly easy to penetrate from Canada and Mexico. -Mexico border have already begun to push terrorist organizations and cartels into the air.
The shift comes as they seek to get around ground infrastructure such as walls, river barriers and sensors while smuggling money and guns into Mexico and drugs into the United States. “What happens when you shrink the battle space? S.
Customs and Border Protection’s acting executive director for countering unmanned aircraft systems within the defense capability group. Crane spoke during a discussion at the Border Security Expo in Arizona this week. Crane said it takes a long time to build a tunnel but does not take a long time to go to Walmart, buy a drone, and fly it.
Cartels have deployed fiber optics and GPS-enabled drones in recent years and have tweaked store-bought drones to outsmart detection systems or carry heavier payloads. “Stuff overseas, well, it’s now at our homeland,” Crane said. He added that he is seeing things that scare him and keep him up at night as it relates to the counter-UAS mission.
Steven Willoughby, acting director of the C-UAS program at DHS, explained that drones can be repurposed for virtually any illicit purpose. “You can use drones for whatever you dream up in your imagination, right? You can carry a payload.
You can do surveillance, counter-surveillance. You can have it fly and deliver, deliver munitions. You can carry narcotics, firearms. I mean, the ability to repurpose a drone to carry out some sort of illicit activity is boundless,” Willoughby said.
