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US Drones' New Mission: Caribbean Drug Traffic

Homeland Security will increase surveillance flights

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 23, 2012 8:12 AM CDT

(Newser) – No wonder the US has so many drone bases scattered about the country: The drones keep getting extra duties. In the latest development, the US plans to ramp up flights over the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to catch drug smugglers, reports the Los Angeles Times. The move will "dramatically increase US drone flights in the Western Hemisphere" and, in fact, double the square miles covered by Homeland Security drones, writes Brian Bennett.

The unmanned aircraft will fly out of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Cocoa Beach, Florida, and some might be based in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The big question is whether they'll be effective tracking down smugglers in vast expanses of open water, and 18 months of quiet testing didn't exactly wow DEA and Coast Guard officials, notes the LAT. In about 1,300 hours of flights out of Florida, one of the few notable busts wasn't of drug smugglers but of Haitian immigrants.

An unmanned Predato' drone flies near the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in this file photo from California.
An unmanned Predato' drone flies near the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in this file photo from California.   (Getty Images)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 53 comments
Observer
Jun 24, 2012 7:07 PM CDT
This is an unproven, ultra expensive, waste of taxpayer dollars. The Drone Industry lobbyists will pay off everyone they can to keep the pipeline flowing.  People need to question this and every other bullshit mission the Military demands we fund. Cut the Pentagon budget in half this year and forever. Fire 2/3s the Brass fuckers that are costing us dearly in money and lives. No compnay in the world would have such a permanent top heavy executive team. Lose these shits.
USLady
Jun 24, 2012 2:30 PM CDT
I agree,they have become too game minded to do any real good! their so called high tech is nothing but a high tech game in the sky! and they fail and fall hard in this sort of task.Not only this,But our privacy thanks to the Obama administration and of course Obamas BS! is shot! Google is working with them to track us,and now drones are suppose to watch us! and Google earth,which went around taking photos to map also collected illegal information for probably the Obama administration ..I mean is it time to sue some people or what! or sit back and wave at the drones in the sky! and support Google online like idiots! Obama and his corrupt administration are doing whatever they want to do to take away our freedom! and they should all be stopped! Reminds me some what of the story about what happened in Oregon in a small town with some corrupt cult people.I will not get all into that.But the cult leader set up people in office from his cult to lead,so they would back him and do as he said when he said to do it.Many people were poisoned by these sick cult people who wanted to completely take over the whole town in Oregon in 1981.The only people they wanted to kill was those who did not want to go a long with them. You might wonder what this has to do with anything.Well,Obama is using tactics much like a cult leader against this country! I think criminal charges should be made against Obama and his little cult followers in office who are braking the laws.We like the small town of Antelope Oregon need to get our freedom back like we are suppose to have it! and get our country out of the hands of those who want to do nothing but place every single American under bondage and their control!
B-Diddy
Jun 24, 2012 11:29 AM CDT
Now the US will be bombing the Cuban rafters and Haitian refugees, claiming that they were also transporting drugs.  Can the USA get any fucking lazier???? We kill wedding parties on the other side of the world, by cocky assholes who takes it as a XBOX 360 / PS3 game to kill people.  They claim drone pilot fatigue.  What a Fucking Joke! They claim that they cannot verify the targets, so they just blow them away!!
 

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