Bad Guys Forced Agent From Observation Post During Hostage Situation

In as incident last winter in what was only described as a "large U.S. city", criminals used a swarm of small drones to drive an FBI hostage team from its observation post during a hostage crisis.

Joe Mazel, the head of the FBI's operational technology law unit, recounted the incident last week during AUVSI XPONENTIAL in Denver. He said that the team had set up a elevated observation position during the hostage situation, but they soon heard the buzz of small drones, and then the aircraft swarmed around them, making several high-speed passes at the agents and forcing them to abandon their site. "We were then blind," Mazel said. "It definitely presented some challenges."

Defense One reports that while the agency won't say exactly where the incident took place, Mazel says it does show how criminal groups are adapting drone technology to their criminal enterprises. He said that the drones had been carried to the area in backpacks in anticipation of the FBI's arrival, and that they also used the aircraft to keep track of where the agents were positioned using a live YouTube feed.

Mazel said that such counter surveillance measures are the fastest-growing way that criminals are using UAVs. They are also being used for intimidation of police and civilians, and for such things as robberies where a drone can help spot security gaps.

Andrew Scharnweber, associate chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said smugglers are using drones to look for gaps in border coverage and then exploit them. "In the Border Patrol, we have struggled with scouts, human scouts that come across the border. They’re stationed on various mountaintops near the border and they would scout … to spot law enforcement and radio down to their counterparts to go around us," he said. "That activity has effectively been replaced by drones,” said Scharnweber, who added that cartels are able to move small amounts of high-value narcotics across the border via drones with “little or no fear of arrest.”

(Image from file)

FMI: Original report