Pubdate: Fri, 23 Jan 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Morgan Lee

SMUGGLING BY DRONE NEW THREAT AT BORDER

Drug smugglers at the U.S. border with Mexico are taking their first 
uncertain steps into the fast-evolving world of airborne robotics, as 
U.S. authorities rush to address a new vulnerability.

A small drone crashed Tuesday evening at a Tijuana shopping mall a 
short distance from the San Ysidro border crossing. Strapped to its 
underside were six packets of methamphetamine weighing about seven pounds.

Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement, said agency officials in San Diego have been preparing 
for drone smuggling for six months after receiving a tip that drug 
traffickers might try out the technology.

"It's the newest threat and vulnerability that we're facing because 
they're very difficult to detect," she said.

She declined to discuss what tools U.S. authorities have at their 
disposal to deal with small drones.

"We're trying to make sure this doesn't become a bigger problem," 
Mack said. "This is the first we've seen of it, and it did not 
succeed and that is good news."

U.S. customs officials have yet to intercept any drones smuggling 
narcotics across U.S. borders, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration said the technique is unlikely to be very profitable.

Over the years, drug smugglers have surmounted border fences and 
patrols with everything from slingshots to ultralight aircraft. They 
have burrowed underground tunnels between warehouses and installed 
railways and ventilation systems.

Drugs have been swallowed in capsules and surgically packed inside 
pets, and at border crossings, drugs are frequently hidden in secret 
compartments within vehicles.

In another new twist, drug smugglers this year have targeted cars and 
drivers with access to the SENTRI trusted traveler lanes at San 
Ysidro by placing containers with powerful magnets under their 
vehicles, The Associated Press reported Thursday.

Smugglers apparently then recovered the illegal cargo far from the 
view of border authorities in the United States. Police seized about 
13 pounds of heroin from underneath one vehicle this month after its 
driver spotted the magnetic containers while filling up for gas in 
the United States.

Advances in drone technology that have helped sell more than a 
million drones in recent years to hobbyists and some businesses could 
prove difficult to trace or intercept at the border.

Matt Maziarz, an editor at MultiRotor Pilot and Fly RC magazines, 
said the remote control device that crashed in Tijuana could easily 
be equipped to carry a payload as large as a 12-pound video camera.

Flight times can be stretched up to an hour, and drones can be 
piloted as far as five miles as pilots watch for obstacles through an 
onboard camera - despite guidelines by the Federal Aviation 
Administration limiting flights to line of sight.

Sophisticated programmers have equipped drones to navigate by pre-set 
GPS coordinates, he said.

"It will literally pop up a Google map, and you can pinpoint where 
the thing goes," Maziarz said.

Those features are earning drones a starring role in everything from 
search and rescue operations to mending fences on vast farms, said 
Maziarz, who laments the use of the technology by criminals.

He said news of the smuggling attempt in Tijuana touched off a flurry 
of online discussions among afficionados of "multi-rotor" devices, 
who shun the word "drone" because of its military association.

Law enforcement can't yet hack into drones, he contends, because 
remote control transmitters and receivers now hop between frequencies 
every millisecond.

"With the drones or with RC (radio controlled) aircraft there's not 
much they can do without following it to wherever it goes or shooting 
it out of the sky," he said.

In Tijuana, where the drone fell Tuesday night, the city government 
has purchased drones to evaluate traffic accidents, detect landslides 
and control wildfires.

Attorney John Davidson of St. Louis has been blogging about the 
potential for smuggling by unpiloted aircraft for several years.

Drug cartels are almost certain to move into the technology as it 
becomes cheaper, considering past smuggling attempts using manned 
aircraft and crudely built submarines, he said. Drones that can be 
programmed to navigate on their own may be irresistible.

"What people are interested in is avoiding getting caught," he said. 
"They're going to start thinking, 'Do I send four or five at once?' "
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