Pakistan-based smugglers switch to hexacopters to push drugs into Punjab

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, February 1

Hexacopters have made a sort of comeback in cross-border smuggling if the recent seizures are anything to go by.

The bigger drones fell out of favour among Pakistan-based smugglers for pushing in drugs after a number of them were shot down in early 2023 by alert Border Security Force (BSF) troops along the International Border (IB).

In past one month, the Punjab Police and BSF recovered three long-sized drones among a dozen UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) along with contraband. On January 13, the police seized a hexacopter in Makhanpur Pandori village falling under the Lopoke police station. Similarly, on Tuesday, the police recovered a hexacopter with 5 kg load of heroin.

“The trend was also noticed during the interrogation of smugglers nabbed with a large quantity of narcotics recently,” said a police official wishing not to be named. He was privy to the investigations.

It is believed that large drones were assembled in Pakistan which was a costly affair, thereby causing huge losses to Pakistan-based smugglers. It forced them to change their tactics and use smaller drones for drug trafficking. These drones helped them drop precise drug payloads due to the GPS system and high- definition cameras capable of live recording and taking pictures.

Last year, Pak-based anti-national elements had switched to small drones to drop the drug payloads posing a bigger challenge before security agencies, including the BSF and Punjab Police.

According to police, smaller China-made drones were capable of flying long distances without being detected by security forces as compared to bigger drones. They make less noise and therefore it was hard to spot them. These smaller drones can carry drugs up to 1 kg. A majority of the drones seized by BSF and Punjab Police were DJI Matrice.

Nevertheless, because of the use of anti-drone technology by BSF, the number of seizures of drones and drugs had increased in the border belt. The village defence committees formed in the border villages were also helping the Punjab Police to seize drones and catch drug peddlers.

“The unwavering efforts of BSF and Punjab Police have caused huge losses to Pakistani smugglers. The ISI supported narco-terror modules have become desperate to push larger quantities of drugs but we are giving a tough fight to thwart their nefarious designs,” said Amritsar rural SSP Satinder Singh.