#drone-drug-smuggling

#drone-drug-smuggling

Craig Doyle, 25, of The Paddocks Way, Adamstown, Lucan, and 30-year-old Adam Aspel, with an address at Corkagh Grange Way, Clondalkin, were arrested by gardai carrying out surveillance of drone activity on March 28.

The vessels were transporting aid to the Caribbean's island nation, amid biting shortages triggered by a tightened US embargo. They were due to arrive in Havana on Tuesday or Wednesday but failed to reach the island, prompting a search and rescue mission.

Jorge Narvaez admitted to using an Autel EVO II Pro V3 drone to attempt to deliver drugs to North Kern State Prison in June 2024, packing two balloons with meth and dropping them over a prison yard.

This was a fantastic seizure by our colleagues at Border Force, and taking this amount of cocaine out of circulation will have deprived the organised criminals involved of millions in profits.

For most of the twentieth century, airpower was one of the most costly components of military strength. Fighter jets, strategic bombers, and advanced missile systems necessitated massive financial investments, highly skilled personnel, and sophisticated logistical support networks. Only great military forces had the ability to sustain these capabilities.

Sunday's attack brought the death toll to at least 157 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" in small vessels in early September. As with most of the military's statements on the more than 40 known strikes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.

These semi-submersible boats have been used for years by drug gangs to smuggle cocaine from South and Central America. In more recent months as the price of cocaine has plummeted, gangs have changed tactics: instead of letting the boats sink on delivery, they have started to reuse the vessels, setting up a refuelling platform at sea and sending the boats back so they can make as many journeys as possible.

The ability of criminal groups to exercise this type of power and exercise this type of violence is closely linked to firearms trafficking, said Cecilia Farfan-Mendez, an expert on Mexican organised crime. If we want to see less violence in Mexico, this is a very important conversation.

The cartel said it was seizing the store, which would only be allowed to sell online outside the state. That was in early 2022, when vapes were still legal in Mexico, a market worth $1.5 billion. But earlier this month, the country banned the sale - although not the use - of electronic cigarettes. Experts believe organized crime will now consolidate its control over the sale of the devices.

A meeting between two drug traffickers in the Amazon jungle region of Putumayo has become a new lever of pressure for Donald Trump on the governments of Colombia and Venezuela. A U.S. intelligence report reveals that Giovanny Andres Rojas aka Arana, the top leader of the Border Commandos and currently imprisoned in La Picota prison in Bogota, is making illegal deals with the Serbian kingpin Antun Mrdeza, who has been held in Venezuela since 2025.

At the direction of the commander of U.S. Southern Command, Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations, Southern Command said in the statement, which as has become customary was accompanied by a video showing the boats exploding after being hit by a missile. Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations, it added.

The US military on Thursday said it killed two people in a strike on a boat suspected of carrying illegal drugs in the eastern Pacific. "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the US Southern Command posted on X. It added that "no US military forces were harmed" in the operation. The statement did not offer any evidence that the boat pictured was actually carrying narcotics before it was blown up in the attack.

The government's ability to deal with drones that pose a threat on American soil has been questioned this week after the use of a laser designed to shoot down drones near the border in Texas led to the abrupt closure of the airspace over El Paso, sources familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The details of exactly what happened before the Federal Aviation Administration shut down the busy airport in the Mexican border city on Wednesday aren't entirely clear,

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued notices to airlines, urging them to exercise caution over Mexico and other Central American countries, as well as Ecuador and Colombia, due to military activities. On Friday, the FAA released a series of advisories that come amid an ongoing US military buildup in the Latin America region, including US military attacks on Venezuela, and US President Donald Trump's warning to Cuba and threats of strikes against drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia,

Most international legal experts reject that and say the attacks amount to murder. Even if the claim of being at war is justified, specialists in the laws of war say the use of a plane disguised to look like a civilian aircraft, so that its targets would be caught off-guard, would represent the war crime of perfidy under international and US military legal standards.

Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations, the Southern Command said in a statement. The command included a video of the strike with its announcement, which shows a boat traveling through the water as it explodes into flames after being hit with what looks like a missile. The Southern Command and the Pentagon did not immediately return requests for additional information.

On Tuesday, during an extended Cabinet meeting, Colombian President Gustavo Petro denounced two plots that initially drew little attention but would have halted the political agenda in almost any other country. As if downplaying it, Petro claimed that earlier this week someone tried to kill him while he was traveling by helicopter. According to his account, the aircraft had to change course and fly over the ocean for four hours before it could land.

Mexico has sent another 37 alleged members of Mexican criminal organisations to the United States, the country's security minister said, amid US President Donald Trump's threat of ground attacks against drug cartels in the region. The handover of alleged drug cartel members on Tuesday is the third major transfer to the US in the past year and brings the total number of suspects transferred to 92.