Drone Trafficking Project

Across the world, criminal organizations are turning to drone technology to smuggle illicit goods and bypass law enforcement detection. Commercial-grade drones, in particular, offer a cheap and efficient alternative to maritime and overland smuggling operations, with advanced payloads that can deliver contraband to transit and destination markets. These same drones can also increase these groups’ abilities to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and even conduct aerial strikes, adding a kinetic component to their illicit activity. Criminal syndicates’ use of underwater drones, commercial drones, and even military-grade drone technology have introduced a new, challenging reality for customs and border security forces. 

The Drone Trafficking Project seeks to generate new actionable intelligence and analyses all aspects of drone trafficking and its implications. Through open-source intelligence gathering, the project tracks all developments related to drone trafficking sightings and seizures and identify how these patterns can be used to inform public policy.  Through its published content and programming, the project  seeks to identify innovative policy solutions that can help address drone trafficking’s geopolitical, law enforcement, and security implications.

The Drone Trafficking Project was created and is led by Caroline Rose and is part of the Crime-Conflict Nexus Portfolio.