The United States Drug Enforcement Agency final 12 months used an AirTag to trace unlawful drug making paraphernalia despatched from China to a narcotics producer within the U.S., in accordance with info from a search warrant that was shared by Forbes.
Border brokers in May 2022 intercepted two packages from China, which included a capsule press and capsule dyes. They suspected the tools was headed to a drug seller and notified the DEA. The DEA opted to stay an AirTag contained in the bundle to trace its actions, which seems to be the primary time an AirTag has been utilized in such a manner.
The search warrant doesn’t present particulars on why the DEA opted to make use of an AirTag over one other form of GPS-based monitoring machine, but it surely talked about that the “precise location information” would let investigators “obtain evidence about where such individuals store drugs and/or drug proceeds, where they obtain controlled substances, and where else they distribute them.”
A retired detective that spoke to Forbes speculated that the DEA might have used an AirTag as a result of it gives extra dependable connectivity than different units, or due to previous failures of the GPS units obtainable to police.
AirTags have built-in anti-tracking capabilities that won’t make them appropriate to be used for this type of monitoring. They are designed to play a sound when away from an proprietor for a brief time period, and may also be positioned utilizing the Find My app on iPhone or the Tracker Detect app for Android.
The recipient of the bundle was in the end not charged in federal court docket, however he did find yourself being charged by the state of Massachusetts the place the bundle was delivered.
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