From Surveillance to Smuggling, Drones Are Gaining the High Ground in the War on Drugs Maya Springhawk Robnett - KAWC
go to original May 12, 2017

Monitoring the US-Mexico border for drug smuggling activity is one of the charges of the U.S. Border Patrol. This task has been made that much more difficult in the technological age. Maya Springhawk Robnett of the Arizona Science Desk reports

What may sound like the buzzing of bees is, in actuality, an unmanned aerial vehicle, also known (appropriately) as a drone. Drones can be can be used in agriculture, to observe whales, to monitor wildlife populations, or to deliver packages for companies like Amazon.

But drones have other uses.

The San Luis border fence is a triple-decker, 18-foot-tall barrier between San Luis, Arizona and San Luis, Rio Colorado in Mexico.

Alan Guevara with the San Luis Police Department stood on the American side of the fence on a bright Arizona morning. “We were just patrolling. You know, it was a night, a regular night. We started getting calls from people, you know, they’re hearing a buzzing sound in the air on top of them but they couldn’t see anything,” Guevara said.

...Recreational drones have only recently been used by drug smugglers as a tool to send contraband over border walls. But Agent Cabrera said this method has its limitations; it is generally only used from city to city over border barriers. He said going across the desert to drop drugs just wouldn’t make sense.

Moreover, Tom McMahon with the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International said small recreational drones such as those being used by drug smugglers simply can’t fly from miles away to drop contraband into the U.S.; a small drone, for the most part, can only be flown as far as the operator can see it.

Read the rest at KAWC

Photo: CNN

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