Mexico-based drug cartels are using technology to smuggle drugs into the United States, including small drones like one that crashed in a city located along the southwest border in California, authorities said.
As reported by Fox News and other media, police in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, just south of San Diego, crash-landed in the parking lot of a supermarket because it was overloaded with methamphetamine.
"Tijuana police spokesman Jorge Morrua said authorities were alerted after the drone fell Tuesday night near the San Ysidro crossing at Mexico's border with California," Fox News reported.
Authorities retrieved six packets of the dangerous addictive drug, weighing, in sum, more than six pounds. The packets were duct-taped to a six-propeller, remotely controlled aircraft.
Not the first drone-related smuggling incident
Morrua noted that Mexican police are looking into where the drone originated from and who might have been controlling it. He added that the incident was not the first time that Mexico-based drug gangs and cartels had employed drone technology to smuggle drugs into the United States.
Other methods, besides trafficking drugs across the border using human "mules," include catapults, tunnels and ultralight aircraft, said authorities.
Fox News reported that, in April, U.S. authorities in South Carolina discovered a drone outside the fence of a prison that was being used to carry cellphones, marijuana and tobacco.
As reported by National Review Online, one U.S. border official downplayed the incident. "To date, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not intercepted any drones smuggling narcotics across the borders into the United States," CBP spokesman Carlos Lazo said in a statement. "In collaboration with our federal, state, local and international law enforcement partners, CBP remains vigilant against emerging trends and ever-changing tactics employed by transnational criminal organizations behind illegal attempts to smuggle narcotics into the U.S."
"In San Diego, the street value, at last account, for a six-pound load would be about $48,000," DEA Special Agent Matt Barden told CNN. "Once you get it across the border, that stuff's like gold."
As reported by Fox News and other media, police in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, just south of San Diego, crash-landed in the parking lot of a supermarket because it was overloaded with methamphetamine.
"Tijuana police spokesman Jorge Morrua said authorities were alerted after the drone fell Tuesday night near the San Ysidro crossing at Mexico's border with California," Fox News reported.
Authorities retrieved six packets of the dangerous addictive drug, weighing, in sum, more than six pounds. The packets were duct-taped to a six-propeller, remotely controlled aircraft.
Not the first drone-related smuggling incident
Morrua noted that Mexican police are looking into where the drone originated from and who might have been controlling it. He added that the incident was not the first time that Mexico-based drug gangs and cartels had employed drone technology to smuggle drugs into the United States.
Other methods, besides trafficking drugs across the border using human "mules," include catapults, tunnels and ultralight aircraft, said authorities.
Fox News reported that, in April, U.S. authorities in South Carolina discovered a drone outside the fence of a prison that was being used to carry cellphones, marijuana and tobacco.
As reported by National Review Online, one U.S. border official downplayed the incident. "To date, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has not intercepted any drones smuggling narcotics across the borders into the United States," CBP spokesman Carlos Lazo said in a statement. "In collaboration with our federal, state, local and international law enforcement partners, CBP remains vigilant against emerging trends and ever-changing tactics employed by transnational criminal organizations behind illegal attempts to smuggle narcotics into the U.S."
"In San Diego, the street value, at last account, for a six-pound load would be about $48,000," DEA Special Agent Matt Barden told CNN. "Once you get it across the border, that stuff's like gold."
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