Johannesburg — Embattled drug smugglers have resorted to using drones to transport illicit substances to neighbouring countries like Namibia and Mozambique following a series of successful drug busts made at South African airports. Special tasks group the Hawks has encountered and disabled several of the machines and confiscated their payloads over the past month, leading to the development of a new counter-operation.
Kelly Maverick has been named Operations Director of the Hawks' Anti-Drone Unit. "It is an honour to be leading this elite team," Maverick said. "We have entered a new age in the battle against narcotics, and we have adapted as much as our enemies have." Maverick elaborated how the the team aims to perform its operations. "Besides using drones of our own, which have been equipped with infra-red sensors, night vision, sonar, automatic rifles and electromagnetic net launchers, we will also utilise specially trained hawks to assist in operations by performing reconnaissance. We are the Hawks, after all. We need to live up to our name." The South African Falcon and Hawk Training Institute has entered into a collaborative partnership with the Anti-Drone team to share expertise in the training of the birds.
Terry Goose, Technical Co-ordinator of the Anti-Drone Unit, explained that operatives utilise virtual reality headsets to view a first-person perspective of their drone's built-in camera. The headsets also display other live data, including weather patterns and nearby aerial objects. "Each of our drones have individual identity chips so we can distinguish them from each other and the hawks. The birds, not the people," he added. "It's like a video game, I shot down five machines that were transporting some cocaine last week. I'm at the top of our leader board, no-one has come close to beating me yet."
Alec Iceman, Reconnaissance Agent of the Anti-Drone Unit, said the move to create the initiative was inspired after a drone carrying a payload of cannabis accidentally crashed in Northern Limpopo. "We have reason to believe a group of drones, or 'swarm' as we call them, was delivering the cannabis to Mozambique, but one of the machines suffered mechanical failure." Iceman says that while the machine and most of the cannabis was recovered, a large amount of the illicit substance was eaten by wildlife roaming the area. "We found a pair of giraffes staring blankly at the sky for something like ten minutes. They didn't move when we shouted at them and they appeared to have grins on their faces. We believed they were under the influence of cannabis and were forced to arrest them."
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Maverick says that despite the operation's recent successes, the Hawks are ready to adapt to whatever tactics they encounter next. "We've heard rumours that new enemy drones are being fitted with Galaxy Note 7s that detonate and destroy payloads automatically if one of our machines or birds approach them. We are currently trying to spread misinformation among smugglers that iPhone 7s have better destructive capability, but don't mention I said that."
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