Drones allow you to capture breathtaking landscapes, deliver packages (but not at the Russian Post yet), are used to patrol the area and perform many other useful functions. However, since this revolutionary product is changing our lives, it can be a threat if used for bad purposes. After all, criminals are among the first to adopt new technologies.
Here top 10 crimes in which drones were involved.
10. Shooting an ATM keyboard
When you go to an ATM to withdraw money, you must make sure that no one peeps how you enter your personal identification number (PIN). However, you are hardly looking at the sky.
In August 2016, a drone filming people standing near an ATM was spotted at Templepatrick, Northern Ireland. Perhaps the drone watched as people enter the PIN code. As soon as someone noticed that the drone did not put the camera in its own place, the device flew away and collided with a nearby taxi. Although the man suspected of driving the drone was forced to pay the taxi owner for the damage, the police could not prove that the video was taken with criminal intent.
9. Drug Delivery to Ohio Prison
Instead of trying to smuggle drugs, a friend of one of the prisoners put 7 grams of heroin, 57 grams of marijuana and 142 grams of tobacco on a drone and sent him flying over the walls of a correctional facility in Mansfield, Ohio.
As soon as the drone dropped the drugs, a fight broke out between the prisoners for the “gifts”. Prison officials managed to cope with the riots, but they had to search almost 200 prisoners to find drugs. And nine prisoners who were the instigators of the fight were placed in solitary confinement.
8. Arms Delivery to Oklahoma Prison
Another criminal group took note of the incident in Ohio State Prison. However, she expanded the “delivery assortment” to include a cell phone, hacksaws, drugs, and super glue. The criminals tied all this to a drone with a fishing line, so that smuggling could be easily pulled out. Unfortunately for the attackers, the drone caught on the barbed wire of the prison walls and collapsed, forcing the prisoners to fight for his luggage until the prison staff intervened.
The broken unmanned vehicle went to the police as evidence. But it is not known whether anyone was detained for this incident.
7. Hacking
To catch a hacker, you must think like a hacker. Fran Brown and David Latimer of Bishop Fox (a security consultancy) have developed unmanned access to various types of Wi-Fi networks. This type of hacking was called Danger Drone and is a Raspberry Pi computer tied to the body of the drone. The computer is equipped with hacking software and has a range of 1.6 kilometers. For manipulations, it uses the usual radio control, but it can be configured to receive signals using cell towers. For example, Danger Drone can “roll over” vulnerable Chromecast devices. This is the equivalent of a secret change of channel.
6. Military action
At the disposal of the militants of the Islamic State terrorist organization (banned in Russia) were hundreds of inexpensive portable unmanned aerial vehicles. These devices were used for warfare in Iraq and Syria. When the ISIS bastion in Mosul was taken in 2017, Iraqi forces found many drone factories.
The militants made two types of drones. One could drop a small explosive, while the other exploded as it approached the target. Some unmanned aerial vehicles that dumped explosives also filmed what was happening on video.
Other terrorist groups, such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa, also adopted drones, but on a relatively limited scale.
5. Burglary
In June 2018, for four consecutive days, a drone was spotted over a village in the English county of Cambridgeshire. A few days later, a robbery of a local resident’s house was committed. The thieves knew exactly the best entry point, as they managed to easily get through the bathroom window and search the home. However, the police were unable to link the drone observations with burglary.
4. Flights over the restricted area
In 2017, almost 250 unregistered unmanned aerial vehicles were recorded at airports around the world. This creates a serious danger for large aircraft, since unmanned aerial vehicles can get into the engine or fly through the windows of the cockpit, which can lead to injuries or even death to pilots.
The Federal Air Transport Agency plans to place special equipment around airports to force the landing of drones that have entered the territory prohibited for them. However, so far there are no special units for combating illegal unmanned aerial vehicles at Russian airfields.
3. Hindering the release of hostages
In third place in the selection of crimes committed using drones is the story that happened in 2017. A team of FBI agents was planning an operation to free the hostages in one of the American cities. While the entire rescue team was in the observation post to assess the situation, a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles flew up to them. Not only were criminals waiting for the FBI to arrive, cameras that were attached to drones constantly broadcast agents with videos on YouTube.
Criminals also use drones to identify potential informants visiting police stations.
2. Voyeurism
In 2017, an unmanned aerial vehicle was caught in Utah.
John Henson was getting ready for work. When he left the shower, he heard the drone buzzing outside the bathroom window. When the man opened the window, the drone flew away. However, John chased him until the drone landed in a parking lot near the church. Henson grabbed the device and called the police.
Officers found that the red lights on the drone were sealed so that it could fly invisible in the dark. They examined the camera recording and found that the drone was filming someone else's privacy.
The police were able to track down the two owners of the drones and accused them of voyeurism.
1. Attempt on the President of Venezuela
On August 4, during a military parade in Caracas, attackers attempted to kill Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. The attempt was carried out using drones equipped with C4 explosives. At least one of the drones was shot down by a sniper, and the guards closed their ward with bulletproof shields.
In a televised address to the nation, Maduro said that the blame for the attempt lies with the authorities of Colombia, and personally Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. However, he did not cite evidence of their guilt. So far, the responsibility for the drone attack has been claimed by a little-known group called the National Movement of Soldiers in T-Shirts.
