Drone carrying meth crashes in Mexican supermarket parking lot
| Mexico City
Police in a Mexican border city said Wednesday that a drone overloaded with illicit methamphetamine crashed into a supermarket parking lot.
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.
Six packets of the drug, weighing more than six pounds, were taped to the six-propeller remote-controlled aircraft. Morrua said authorities are investigating where the flight originated and who was controlling it. He said it was not the first time they had seen drones used for smuggling drugs across the border.
Other innovative efforts have included catapults, ultralight aircraft and tunnels.
In April 2014, authorities in South Carolina found a drone outside the fence of a prison that had been carrying cellphones, marijuana and tobacco.
In July 2014, the Latin Times reported that drug trafficking organizations in Mexico are increasingly using drones to transport drugs.
According to information from an anonymous source within the DEA,the criminal groups have been using this technology since 2011, but recently have developed more intensively to recruit skilled workers. Drones represent a less expensive way to smuggle drugs compared to tunnels or underwater, plus they can evade detection by radar.
The DEA reported that in 2012 an average of 150 trips were made with drones that crossed the border from Mexico to the United States, in which packets of cocaine and other drugs were transported. Drones have been called the ideal 'drug mules' for the speed and efficiency with which they can transport drugs. The machines have allowed cartels to transport shipments more quickly, with less risk of being caught, allowing them to fund development programs to create their own drones.
