Federal investigators arrested a 39-year-old man this week after accusing him of flying a drone and taking pictures of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, an arrest that comes amid other high-profile drone swarms at U.S. military bases.
Yinpiao Zhou, a 39-year-old Chinese citizen and U.S. resident, was arrested Monday at San Francisco International Airport prior to an outbound flight to China, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a news release. He had most recently returned to the U.S. from China this past February, the office added.
The incident occurred on Nov. 30 after detection systems at Vandenberg noticed the drone and tracked it to a public park about an hour from the base. Base security arrived at the park, spoke with Zhou, and discovered he had a drone in his jacket pocket, allegedly the same one that flew over the base.
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“Agents later searched Zhou’s drone pursuant to a federal search warrant and saw several photographs of Vandenberg Space Force Base taken from an aerial viewpoint,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the news release.
Officials also said a probe of Zhou’s cellphone showed a Google search roughly a month earlier for “Vandenberg Space Force Base Drone Rules.” He also allegedly messaged someone about “hacking his drone to allow it to fly higher than it could otherwise.”
Zhou is charged with failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and violation of national defense airspace, which could lead to a maximum four years in federal prison if convicted, per the news release.
“This defendant allegedly flew a drone over a military base and took photos of the base’s layout, which is against the law,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in the news release.
His arrest comes amid several high-profile incidents involving drones, including recent sightings of drones at an Army facility in New Jersey, as well as swarms appearing near U.S. military bases overseas.
Local media, citing military officials, reported that there had been 11 confirmed drone sightings at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey beginning in mid-November.
While U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., claimed in a TV interview as well as a social media post on Wednesday that the drones were “possibly linked to a missing Iranian mothership” off the Eastern Coast of the country, Defense Department officials strongly denied his claim.
“At this time, we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Wednesday. “At no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring.”
Singh added that the FBI and local law enforcement were investigating the sightings.
Military.com reported late last month that three bases in the United Kingdom — RAF Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall and RAF Feltwell — all spotted drones near the installations.
A spokesperson for U.S. Air Forces in Europe told Military.com at the time that those drones “were actively monitored, and installation leaders determined that none of the incursions impacted base residents, facilities or assets.”
Zhou’s arrest mirrors another case reported last year.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in December 2023 drones of an unknown origin were spotted around Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, for 17 days. The newspaper also reported that a 26-year-old Chinese citizen and U.S. graduate student was arrested a few weeks after and later pleaded guilty to taking photos of classified naval installations with his drone.
— Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.
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