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While Amazon, Google and others explore how to use drones to deliver merchandise to customers, drug smugglers in Mexico are turning to the remote-controlled aircraft to deliver packages of a different kind.
A drone carrying methamphetamines crashed into a parking lot at a shopping center in Tijuana on Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, the Tijuana Police Department announced on Wednesday that the drone crashed near the San Ysidro border crossing. The police told U-T San Diego that the drone likely was being used to ferry drugs between neighborhoods and not across the heavily guarded US-Mexico border where the drone had better chances of being spotted.
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Six packets of meth, weighing about 6.6 pounds, were taped to the underside of a six-propeller drone, the AP reports. Authorities are investigating who was flying the drone and where the flight originated. Police believe the drone is a DJI Spread Wings S900, which can fly autonomously. That could make it more challenging to track down the responsible party.
This isn’t the first time Tijuana police have seen drones used to transport drugs. Drone smuggling is just the latest way drug runners are trying to traffic their product within and outside of Mexico. Previous smuggling efforts made use of catapults, extensive tunnels and — I kid you not — a pneumatic pot cannon that attempted to transport drugs across the US-Mexico border.
So, while you may think drones are a fun, albeit expensive way to capture the perfect selfie, realize that in the wrong hands, drones also have a bit of a dark side.
