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Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

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Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#11

Post by InclinedPlane »

jamierothfeder wrote: post #5
InclinedPlane wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not legalize all of the drugs? We've proven that we can't stop people from using drugs. What advantage is there in ensuring that the billions spent on drugs gets funneled into the hands of hardened criminals?

Imagine our elected representatives trying to come up with laws, regulations, tax policies, public health issues (think big tabacco), arrests (there are currently many more alcohol related arrests than drug related arrests). Not saying that this isn't something that shouldn't be considered, just pointing out that it isn't without cost.

Again, what part of this is in any way worse than funneling tens of billions of dollars a year into the hands of the most violent career criminals?

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#12

Post by JasonFruit »

In my understanding, the load-carrying capability of most ultralights is minimal. They give figures based on 250 pounds of drugs, but in some models of ultralight, I would have weigh under 190 pounds just to get airborne with a full tank of gas. I'm not able to find how many of those 223 "ultralight incursions" were actually carrying drugs, either. I question the reality of this problem.

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#13

Post by sliverstorm »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #3
jayfuerstenberg wrote: post #2

$100 million on censors? How about legalize some of the softer drugs they are flying so it becomes less profitable for them to carry out such operations in the first place?

Why not legalize all of the drugs? We've proven that we can't stop people from using drugs. What advantage is there in ensuring that the billions spent on drugs gets funneled into the hands of hardened criminals?

There's a lot of different arguments. I can't remember them all, but the first one that comes to mind is the hope that legalizing softer drugs would reduce demand for harder, still-illegal drugs. Especially if legalization reduces prices of the softer drugs.

This could be powerful, for example, if we identify that a certain drug is fairly safe but its relatives are not. Legalize the safer form, not the dangerous forms, and market incentives will cause most people to favor the now-legal form. Everybody wins (Though this presumes we have "comparables" to pick between)

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#15

Post by dhughes »

base698 wrote: post #10
ChuckMcM wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I caught that as well. Still costs less to put a sacrificial mule in the driver seat than to automate them. A long time ago when Georgia Tech was flying GPS guided helicopters in the UAV contests I wondered just how much it would cost to build a drug mule like that. Should be pretty trivial, drop via GPS and you don't need human pilots. Of course if you get spotted a human can abort back over the border but a robot w…

http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/ I wonder how complicated it would be to adapt that to a larger craft.

Or something like the Ardrone2.

Adding to what was said above the craft looks like a powered parachute type not a wing and rudder type ultralight aircraft.

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#16

Post by electic »

A simple UAV is not far off and I am sure they are working on it. You can bet your bottom dollar on it. It is a very interesting problem to solve. The U.S. government has to deal with subs, tunnels, and now ultralights.

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#17

Post by [deleted] »

gvb wrote: post #4

Ultralights, not UAVs. The picture of the downed ultralight clearly has a pilot seat and instrumentation. The only place UAV is mentioned in the article is an editorial addition to a quote from the sensor vendor "[unmanned aerial vehicles]". If you follow the link to the vendor site, you will find the vendor advertises their sensor as an adjunct to "unmanned aerial systems", i.e. the boarder patrol's UAVs, not the sm…

[deleted]

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#18

Post by jayfuerstenberg »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #3
jayfuerstenberg wrote: post #2

$100 million on censors? How about legalize some of the softer drugs they are flying so it becomes less profitable for them to carry out such operations in the first place?

Why not legalize all of the drugs? We've proven that we can't stop people from using drugs. What advantage is there in ensuring that the billions spent on drugs gets funneled into the hands of hardened criminals?

I won't pretend to know enough about all drugs to advocate legalizing them all, but certainly some like Marijuana aren't exactly making Amsterdam and Vancouver collapse overnight.

If you make something illegal you make them more scarce and therefore more valuable. Erase the value by erasing the scarcity and the problem actually just goes away.

For harder substances I am not certain if this makes sense.

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#19

Post by [deleted] »

base698 wrote: post #9
positr0n wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$16 million is revenue, not profit, but I agree the scale is amazing. I know the price of cocaine in America is thousands of times more than straight out of the lab in Columbia. I wonder how big of a cut each group takes from the massive profit as it works it's way to America...

You can get Columbian coffee for $7/pound in a grocery store in the US. It can't be that much different in the raw manufacturing costs.

[deleted]

Re: Drug Cartels Now Using UAVs

#20

Post by lwat »

base698 wrote: post #9
positr0n wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$16 million is revenue, not profit, but I agree the scale is amazing. I know the price of cocaine in America is thousands of times more than straight out of the lab in Columbia. I wonder how big of a cut each group takes from the massive profit as it works it's way to America...

You can get Columbian coffee for $7/pound in a grocery store in the US. It can't be that much different in the raw manufacturing costs.

The manufacturing cost is about zero but there are other costs, like transport.
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