Arizona Border Sees Influx of Drones Smuggling Drugs to US From Mexico

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) noted that the drones used to smuggle illegal contraband are usually 2 to 4 feet wide (0.6 to 1.2 meters).

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Yuma Sector of the US-Mexico border in the state of Arizona has been seeing an increasing amount of remote controlled drones carrying drugs into the United States, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a press release on Wednesday.

"Drones have been observed primarily in the San Luis area," the release stated. "They are known to carry illegal contraband into the United States where it is dropped and picked up by smugglers north of the border."

The CBP noted that the drones used to smuggle illegal contraband are usually 2 to 4 feet wide (0.6 to 1.2 meters).

The US Southern Command and its Mexican partners destroyed 570,000 hectares of poppy crop in 2015. However, officials maintain that combating the current heroin epidemic in the United States requires a combination of interdiction and reducing the demand for the drug.