Federal authorities became so adept at hunting down drones during the FIFA World Cup that some drones were intercepted before operators could remove them from cars, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin revealed this week. He said security teams brought down nearly 2,000 drones over the course of the tournament.
“We got so good at [intercepting them], we started being able to bring them down before they even got out of the trunk of a car,” Mullin said Monday on “The Will Cain Show.”
“We started being able to recognize where they’re at.”
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Many of the drones belonged to spectators hoping for a bird’s-eye view of the matches. But Mullin said others raised more serious concerns, with authorities believing some operators were intentionally probing security perimeters around stadiums and fan festivals.
“Some of them we felt like was actual a threat, that they were testing the perimeter. Those are some of the drones that we confiscated,” he said.
“Some were licensed individuals that knew better, but they were trying to push it. We also confiscated those, but I think people were trying to see where our perimeters was or what our ability was.”
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Mullin said authorities had “technology dialed in” to the point that security teams were able to locate operators before many drones ever took flight, even as operators launched drones from outside the established perimeter.
According to Mullin, the established no-fly zones extended three miles and 3,000 feet around stadiums, along with one-mile and 1,000-foot restrictions surrounding FIFA Fan Festivals. Security teams averaged more than 30 intercepted drones per match, he said, not including additional incidents around fan festivals and after games concluded.
Per Mullin’s estimates, authorities confiscated roughly 700 drones and brought down nearly 2,000.
But rogue drones weren’t the only threat authorities faced during the tournament. Mullin also disclosed that federal, state and local officials thwarted what he described as one imminent threat targeting a World Cup Fan Fest.
“I can’t give you the location of it, but the threat was about using vehicles,” he told Cain.
“It was specifically towards a fan fest and, fortunately enough, we were able to have coordination with federal partnerships.”
