Pubdate: Thu, 13 Aug 2015
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2015 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321

2 PLEAD GUILTY TO SMUGGLING HEROIN FROM MEXICO BY DRONE

EL CENTRO (AP) - Two California men pleaded guilty to using drones to 
smuggle nearly 30 pounds of heroin from Mexico to the United States, 
authorities said Wednesday.

It was the first drug seizure involving a drone along California's 
border with Mexico, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. She was unaware of 
any other drone-related seizure on the 1,954-mile divide between the 
two countries.

Jonathan Elias, 18, and Brayan Valle, 19, admitted in federal court 
Tuesday that they drove to a field in Calexico in April to pick up a 
bag with 28.6 pounds of heroin that was sent across the border by drone.

Elias took over control of the drone from an operator in Mexico after 
the aircraft crossed the border, Mack said.

In a plea agreement, Valle acknowledged placing the drugs in the trunk.

"With border security tight, drug traffickers have thought of every 
conceivable method to move their drugs over, under and through the 
border," said Laura Duffy, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of 
California. "We have found their tunnels, their Cessnas, their Jet 
Skis, their pangas and now we have found their drones."

The discovery comes about four years after authorities began 
discovering ultralight aircraft making lightning-quick runs across 
the border in California's Imperial Valley to drop bundles of 
marijuana, a tactic that since has become more common on other 
stretches of border.

Like ultralights, drones are limited by the weight they can carry. 
But authorities are paying closer attention as they become more 
popular with consumers.

"It's more in an experimental stage and doesn't appear to be very 
successful or lucrative," Mack said.

The defendants, both from El Centro, each face maximum sentences of 
20 years in prison when they are sentenced Oct. 20 for possession of 
heroin with intent to distribute.

In January, Mexican authorities said a drone carrying more than 6 
pounds of methamphetamine crashed in a supermarket parking lot in 
Tijuana, near the nation's busiest border crossing with San Diego.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom