A drone carrying drugs was found crashed in a parking lot near the US-Mexico border.
On Tuesday night, an anonymous caller notified authorities of a drone that had crashed in a parking lot in Tijuana. The drone found in the parking lot of a shopping mall was carrying about seven pounds of methamphetamine.
Tijuana Police Department received the call around 10 pm and responded immediately. Authorities conducted searches in the area throughout Wednesday. The shopping mall is located just two miles from the U.S. and Mexico border.
The model of the drone is reported as a "Spread Wings s900". This six-propeller model costs about $1400 and is considered professional grade. It is available for sale on Amazon. U-T San Diego reports that the craft crashed as a result of excessive cargo weight. Though the use of drones to carry drugs is not new, nor effective in comparison to other methods, the rise in technology might bring concern to drug enforcement, especially as the availability of drones becomes more widespread.
An officer stated that the drug drone was most likely transporting narcotics locally, rather than across the national borders. The drone would be easily spotted in more populated areas, such as the border. This is not the first occurrence of drone use to transport illegal items. Others have used drones to transport cell phones and drugs to inmates.
Other methods such as catapults, small airplanes, and underground tunnels have been used in the past to smuggle drugs into the United States from Mexico. Drones are not as efficient as these other methods, claim experts. Amy Roderick of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in San Diego told U-T San Diego, "This method will only allow a small amount of drugs to be flown at a time. That coupled with the ease of detection, does not make this method very profitable to these drug trafficking organizations whose motivation is money."
In the future, however, drones may be used more frequently as shipping methods by companies such as Amazon. This would create further complications with air traffic and perhaps drug trafficking.
