Drone from Morocco Seized After Being Caught with 150Kgs of Cocaine

“You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

This famous qoute was coined in one of my favorite films of all time, “The Dark Knight” by hero turned villain, Harvey Dent aka Two-Face.

It is the philosophical summary that, no matter what good you intend to do, as long as you live and continue, you will bring just as much evil as good, if not more through accident or intent. Being consistently heroic is difficult if not impossible, circumstances will eventually push you towards villainy (as in the case of Harvey Dent and Batman).

Now I know what you’re all thinking… What the hell does this monologue have to do with drones?? I’m glad you asked. You see guys, just a few weeks ago, I reported on Tech Gazi about how drones were revolutionizing the African industry. In this article I talked about how drones were tracking poachers, delivering vaccines in Ghana, as well as making it easier for farmers to water their crops.

All the work that has been done by drones thus far is great. I still very much stand by this viewpoint, however as I stated at the start… You either die a hero, or live long enough to become a villain.

With that said I hate to report this, but a Moroccan drone was recently seized by police carrying about 150 kgs of narcotics. The white drone that was seized in Southern Spain was found to have a wingspan of 4.5 meters and a capacity to carry 150 kilos of cargo. This latest seizure by the police involves a group of Moroccan-French drug traffickers.

The criminal gang used the aircraft to transport drugs from Morocco to the small town of Almáchar (1,811 inhabitants). The drone has the capability to fly for up to seven hours at a maximum speed of 170km/h. As such, its range for transporting narcotics “is huge,” according to Antonio Rodríguez Puertas, the chief inspector in charge of the UDYCO organized crime unit in Málaga.

“We’ve never seen a drone this big used for this purpose,” said Pedro Luis Bardón, from the National Police’s airborne resources unit. “There were some precedents, but not like this. This is the biggest one ever found in Spain.”

Having done a bit of digging, I found that the drone was built in China, and has an estimated cost ranging between N$ 524 260 (30 000 Euros) to N$ 2 620 000 (150 000 euros). The drone comes with five motors. Four of them are electric and allow the aircraft to land and take off vertically. The inside of the aircraft is hollow and would normally be used for cameras or other electrical equipment. In the case of the drug gang, it was being used for packages of narcotics, particularly cocaine, which brings in the biggest profits.

Technology makes our lives easier, however at times it can also end up in the hands of bad guys. When this happens its essential that we put measures in place to prevent crimes of this nature from happening. As much as drones continue to do great things for our society, we also need to be wary of the bad that they can cause especially in the wrong hands.

A famous quote by Karl Marx states that,

“The road to hell is often paved with good intentions”.

It is therefore essential that once we reach that dreaded destination where technology gets into the hands of bad people, we put measures in place to counteract the evil.