Escalating Threat: Pakistan’s Drone-Facilitated Narcotics and Weapon Smuggling

BSF soldiers tracked the drone and found it had fallen in the village field.

Amidst election season, Pakistan has escalated its smuggling operations, particularly in narcotics and weapons, leveraging drones as a primary conduit. Recent interceptions by the Border Security Force (BSF) in the last 48 hours, in Punjab underscore the growing threat.

According to the official spokesperson of BSF, more than half a dozen drones carrying narcotics drugs and weapons have been shot down.

Most of the drones shot down are Chinese-made DJI-Mavic 3 Classic quadcopters and five such incidents have come to light in Amritsar district of Punjab alone. Apart from this, one incident each has also been reported in Tarn Taran, Fazilka and Gurdaspur.

A drone was intercepted in Kakkar village of Amritsar at 7.35 am on Monday. BSF soldiers tracked the drone and found it had fallen in the village field. However, no drugs or weapons of any kind were recovered from this drone. In such a situation, it is believed that this drone has already dropped the consignment brought from Pakistan somewhere.

Because on Sunday also, BSF’s Punjab Frontier had seized a packet in a field in Roranwala village of Amritsar which contained more than half a kilo of narcotic drugs. There was a steel ring and a shining strip around this packet. Therefore, it is believed that this packet might have been dropped from Pakistan after intruding into India’s air-space. The glowing strip was installed so that the lifting carrier-agent could be clearly visible after the fall. However, alert BSF soldiers seized it.

Even on Sunday (May 5, 2024) morning, BSF had seized two Pakistani drones in different villages of Amritsar. Both of these were also Chinese DGI Matrice 300 and Mavic 3 Classic quadcopters. On Saturday (May 4, 2024), a Chinese drone was also seized in Tarn Taran district in which a packet of about 400 grams containing drugs was found.

In the last 48 hours, BSF has recovered more than three kilos of drugs on the Pakistani border adjoining Punjab. In one incident, drugs were hidden in the sole of a pair of slippers in a field. Whereas in one incident, a pistol and an empty magazine were recovered in a yellow packet very close to the border.

Data shared by BSF and Punjab Police indicates: every year about 600 cases of smuggling of drugs and weapons through drones are reported from Pakistan. This means that not a day passes when smuggling does not take place through drones from Pakistan on the borders of Punjab, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. Last year (2023), BSF and Punjab Police had shot down 119 drones (Chinese quadcopters) coming from Pakistan.