The FBI had its cover blown by a descending flurry of drones during surveillance of a notorious gang thought to be holding at least one person captive.
According to the chief of the bureaus Operation Technology Law Unit, the small remote-controlled aircraft made “high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them.”
“We were then blind,” recounted Joe Mazel to attendees of the AUVSI Xponential tech conference, as reported by Defense One.
The disruption occurred last winter as a hostage rescue squad assessed the developing crisis from an elevated position.
“It definitely presented some challenges,” Mazel told the Denver audience. “They had people fly their own drones up and put the footage to YouTube so that [gang members] who had cellular access could go to the YouTube site and pull down the video.”
Drone use has become an increasing problem for law enforcement. Criminal organizations are employing the technology in robbery preparation, smuggling, stake-out surveillance and even the monitoring of police stations to track who is going in and out.
Gene Robinson, VP of Drone Pilot Inc, which assists emergency response agencies and law enforcement, told HuffPost countermeasures against criminals use of the small un-manned units are considerably restricted.
“There are effective jamming and spoofing methods out there,” he explained, “but the FCC says its a federal offense to jam any signal. They dont make exceptions for anyone, including law enforcement.”
Mazel declined to reveal where the incident took place, calling the matter “law enforcement sensitive.”
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