Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones • Hacker News Board

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#71

Post by Nextgrid » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:46 AM UTC

CapricornNoble wrote: post #35

nradov wrote: post #2

Short-range air defense (SHORAD) is going to be a huge growth area for defense contractors over the next several years.

I wonder if we can repurpose mm-wave 60GHz panel antennas and SDRs for cheap short-range radars. Then combine with a commercial infrared camera for multi-mode target acquisition. Put those on a mount with servos to control a PKM or M240 machinegun, and mount the whole setup on the roofs of buildings. Critical infrastructure anti-drone air defense guns at fairly low cost.

> Put those on a mount with servos to control a PKM or M240 machinegun

Leaving weapons unattended like that is a recipe for disaster. Even worse if they're network-connected (look at the tons of insecure IoT devices already out there).

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#72

Post by grugagag » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:47 AM UTC

Legalizing all drugs would kill these cartels almost instantly. People who do drugs do them anyway and find a way to even if they’re illegal. If drugs weren’t illegal all that money wouldnt end up in mexican cartels pockets.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#73

Post by duncan_bayne » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:48 AM UTC

HenryKissinger wrote: post #40

adenozine wrote: post #30

I've been worrying about this for years. What's next is micro-chemical attacks. Drones that can cloud an individual or small group of people. They'll think it was just dust or something, the thing zips off into the sky, and the linings of their lungs starts dissolving and they die.

Russia attempted to kill a dissenter in England with a toxic agent and all of Europe went up in arms. Presidents and prime ministers put out condemnations. Public opinion sharply turned against Russia. The backlash to what you're suggesting would be insane if it actually happened.

Sure but that tends to work against States. Backlash against non-State groups like the PLO and IRA seems less effectual.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#74

Post by grugagag » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:50 AM UTC

roywiggins wrote: post #66

mycall wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't these drones be pretty easy to signal jam? I mean cartels don't really care about the law anyways.

Only if you see them coming; if you have to run the jammer at all times, that's just a homing beacon for drones.

You can run decoy ones as well. I think we’ll see a drone defense industry pop up soon

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#75

Post by anitil » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:50 AM UTC

mycall wrote: post #62

adenozine wrote: post #30

I've been worrying about this for years. What's next is micro-chemical attacks. Drones that can cloud an individual or small group of people. They'll think it was just dust or something, the thing zips off into the sky, and the linings of their lungs starts dissolving and they die.

Shouldn't these drones be pretty easy to signal jam? I mean cartels don't really care about the law anyways.

Disclosure: I work for a company in this field.

They are easy to jam if you don't mind also not having GPS, Wifi and 3G/4G/5G service. You can do selective jamming but this is much more sophisticated

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#76

Post by phobosanomaly » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:51 AM UTC

vmception wrote: post #6

Interesting map, its crazy how often these groups fracture and splinter! Really wish one of these would go publicly traded and report revenue, leading to real price discovery of these operations and ability to manage risk. There are permissionless systems they can use now to list shares, and if they have a liquidity issue they just need to take over a dam and generate some electricity for themselves for their crypto…

Grain of salt and such, but here's a revenue figure I found in this very interesting 2020 congressional report "Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations".

"By some estimates, Sinaloa had grown to control 40%-60% of Mexico’s drug trade by 2012 and had annual earnings calculated to be as high as $3 billion."

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41576.pdf

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#77

Post by TheSpiceIsLife » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:51 AM UTC

HenryKissinger wrote: post #40

adenozine wrote: post #30

I've been worrying about this for years. What's next is micro-chemical attacks. Drones that can cloud an individual or small group of people. They'll think it was just dust or something, the thing zips off into the sky, and the linings of their lungs starts dissolving and they die.

Russia attempted to kill a dissenter in England with a toxic agent and all of Europe went up in arms. Presidents and prime ministers put out condemnations. Public opinion sharply turned against Russia. The backlash to what you're suggesting would be insane if it actually happened.

> agent and all of Europe went up in arms.

Not arms as in weapons, arms as in failing their arms about.

Fat lot of good that'll do to prevent the next incident.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#78

Post by jimbob45 » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:52 AM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #72

Legalizing all drugs would kill these cartels almost instantly. People who do drugs do them anyway and find a way to even if they’re illegal. If drugs weren’t illegal all that money wouldnt end up in mexican cartels pockets.

I’ve read that the cartels have diversified their businesses enough that this is no longer true. Do you have a source?

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#79

Post by roywiggins » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:52 AM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #74

roywiggins wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you see them coming; if you have to run the jammer at all times, that's just a homing beacon for drones.

You can run decoy ones as well. I think we’ll see a drone defense industry pop up soon

It exists, mostly defense contractors though.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/5/18169215/london-heathrow-g...

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#80

Post by eanzenberg » Mon, Aug 31, 2020, 1:54 AM UTC

grugagag wrote: post #72

Legalizing all drugs would kill these cartels almost instantly. People who do drugs do them anyway and find a way to even if they’re illegal. If drugs weren’t illegal all that money wouldnt end up in mexican cartels pockets.

This is untrue, as drug cartels still make tons of weed to sell in areas where it’s already legalized.