Posted on 01/02/2018 10:23:39 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Border Patrol agents are increasingly worried about the threat from drug-cartel-flown drones, after agents spotted 13 drones suspected of carrying drugs across one section of the U.S.-Mexico border in just one four-day period in November.
Cartels are aware that the U.S. lacks the ability to detect the drones, much less to interdict them, making them a choice method for smuggling high-dollar hard drugs into the country, agents said.
They said the fact that they even spotted the 13 drones was serendipitous and only hints at the scope of the real problem.
“We’re seeing an uptick. We flat-out just don’t have the technology to detect these,” said Brandon Judd, an agent and president of the National Border Patrol Council. “The number is just astronomical.”
Security analysts say the problems from drones are tough to oversell. The Islamic State has harnessed drones as delivery vehicles for improvised explosive devices, and top U.S. officials fear those same tactics could be used in the U.S.
Last year, one security blog reported that an intercepted Mexican cartel truck had both a drone and potato bombs, which are crude explosives packed with shrapnel.
Other uses could include tracking the Border Patrol to direct drug loads around them, or even using the drones as defensive shields to make it too dangerous for air support to assist on Border Patrol operations.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees the Border Patrol, was unable to point to a policy for handling the dangers posed by unmanned aerial vehicles.
“While I can’t provide specifics, I can tell you that U.S. Customs and Border Protection is charged with protecting our nation and will mitigate threats from any direction or any mode they may come,” said Dan Hetlage, a spokesperson for the agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
DEA should start prosecuting high-profile Hollywood users and celebrities.
Start that and you won’t have a Drug War much longer. I remember in the early 2000’s when NYC busted a cocaine delivery service but the users – including doctors, lawyers and professors – were not chargedd because prosecutors said they were“genteel users” who coukd mannage their habits.
The DEA should trace the drones back to their source and then use an armed drone to obliterate the source.
“Build the wall and force the cartels to go over,.........”
Isn’t that exactly what the drones do? Duh?
I can see drones will be very difficult to stop UNLESS a special frequency can be initiated that would allow for the Border Patrol to override the onboard operating control systems of ANY drone.
Hah! The FAA can't find it's ass with both hands. What it is or is not "okay with" is completely irrelevant.
The solution is to find the source of the drones and then obliterate it.
It doesn't. Less than $1000 will get you a quadcopter that will fly for about 20 minutes, completely autonomously.
BP has had issues with ultralights being used to smuggle drugs for years, and it seems they have a really hard time intercepting them too.
They need more technology, tons of money has been wasted trying to use technology as a fence- that has failed. Money needs to be spent on detection technology. Another issue BP has is often when something is detected there is no available manpower in that area to respond. The cartels seem to have better intel about where BP is than BP has where the smugglers are.
I think they have been as concerned as the EPA is about all the pollution/ecological damage caused by illegal activity on the border.
Instead of fighting drones the cartels should be targeted in a full-on military extermination.
Agreed but there will be numerous mobile control “sources” all along our borders. Being able to at least override any electronic control systems would give the Border Patrol a leg up on where those drones could be directed.
As practiced by the US BP our war on drugs is a defensive war. The opposition, being on offense, picks the place and time of their attack.
No war has ever been won on defense.
Yes it is what they do but it's a limited technology. They would either need thousands of drones or much bigger ones to handle the quantity they get through now. In either case you are forcing them into an area that you can patrol. The problem, as it always is, is that the Cartels will just find yet another way. It's always going to be a reactionary strategy unless we invade Mexico and wipe them out.
Right. That's the problem. They should be prosecuted.
You think we have a problem now??? Check this out:
https://qz.com/974870/ever-wanted-to-ride-a-giant-drone-meet-the-kitty-hawk-flyer/
It has a 250 pound payload, no GPS needed, video remote piloting and can land on a moving truck..... Given the length of our land border with Mexico, flying it 50 feet over terrain too rough for Border Patrol, no radar signature.......
Might be a bigger deterrent NOT being considered....The death penalty for ANYONE caught smuggling drugs, dealing in drugs, etc. in the U.S. Nah, never going to happen.
“The solution is to find the source of the drones and then obliterate it.”......
Wiping out 99% of Mexico would have a major effect on the rest of the drug buying world, somebody would really get pissed!
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