Secretaría de Seguridad Pública Tijuana/Facebook
Tech giants Amazon and Google are both testing delivery drones - but so are drug smugglers.
A drone crashed into a supermarket parking lot near the Mexican border last night, and it was overloaded with 3 kilos of crystal meth.
As reported by the Verge, the news first came via the Facebook page of a Tijuana police force. The drone crashed on Tuesday night near the Mexican border with California. Police suspect it "could not sustain" the weight it was carrying.
We already know that the cartels are making increasing use of drones to smuggle drugs across the border into America. A police spokesperson told the AP "it was not the first time they had seen drones used for smuggling drugs across the border." They didn't name any potential suspects in the case.
According to the Guardian, "other innovative efforts [for drug trafficking] have included catapults, ultralight aircraft and tunnels." Meanwhile, far bigger drones are being used to ship large quantities of cocaine across the border, a 2014 Motherboard report claims - earning traffickers up $2 million per flight.
Here are two more photos of the downed drone:
Secretaría de Seguridad Pública Tijuana/Facebook
Secretaría de Seguridad Pública Tijuana/Facebook