Police recently nabbed three men in Kelantan for trying to smuggle prohibited items into a rehabilitation centre using a drone on 12 December, 2022.
Bernama quoted Kelantan police chief Datuk Mohamad Zaki who mentioned that the arrests were made after the police received reports of a drone being flown above the facility.
The centre, which is installed with a tracking device, detected the drone operator in an area near it in Jalan Kuing Indah, Kampung Pangkal Meleret, Machang. Three suspects sped off in a Honda CRV (on seeing the arrival of the authorities) before they were arrested near the Kuala Krai-Kota Baru road in Kampung Bukit Belah, Machang.
Kelantan police chief Datuk Mohamad Zaki
Zaki mentioned that the police found five mobile phones, two power banks, a machete, firecrackers and a type of dagger known as a badik and a roll of double tape after checking the car.
They also found an RC123 drone remote control device, 13 packets of tobacco and 41 small compressed packages, believed to contain tobacco.
The suspects, aged between 35 and 39, were charged on 19 December under section 58(1) of the Prisons Act 1995 and rule 140 of the Malaysian Civil Aviation Regulations 2016 and section 6 of the Corrosive Substances, Explosives and Dangerous Weapons Act 1957 in a magistrate’s court in Machang.
Zaki said it is an offence to fly a drone without a permit from the Civil Aviation Department.
