[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 120 (Tuesday, August 2, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5260-S5261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. UDALL of New Mexico (for himself, Mr. Heller, Mr. 
        Bingaman, and Mrs. Feinstein):
  S. 1485. A bill to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to include ultralight 
vehicles under the definition of aircraft for purposes of the aviation 
smuggling provisions under that Act, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Finance.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce the 
Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act, legislation that will 
crack down on smugglers who use ultralight aircraft, also known as 
ULAs, to bring drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. I am pleased to be 
working on this in a bipartisan manner with Senator Heller, who 
introduced a very similar bill last year in the House with 
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. That bill passed overwhelmingly by a 
412-3 vote. I hope we can have a similar bipartisan result here in the 
Senate.
  ULAs are single-pilot aircraft capable of flying low, landing and 
taking off quickly, and are typically used for sport or for recreation. 
However, because of increased detection and interdiction of more 
traditional smuggling conveyances, ULAs have increasingly been employed 
along the Southwest border by Mexican drug trafficking organizations to 
smuggle drugs into the United States.
  The use of ULAs by drug smugglers presents a unique challenge for 
Border Patrol and prosecutors. Every year hundreds of ULAs are flown 
across the Southwest border and each one can carry hundreds of pounds 
of narcotics. Under existing law, ULAs are not categorized as aircraft 
by the Federal Aviation Administration, so they do not fall under the 
aviation smuggling provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930. This means 
that a drug smuggler piloting a small airplane is subject to much 
stronger criminal penalties than a smuggler who pilots a ULA.
  Our bill will close this unintended loophole and establish the same 
penalties if convicted--a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a 
$25,000 fine--for smuggling drugs on ULAs as currently exist for 
smuggling on airplanes or in automobiles. This is a common sense 
solution that will give our law enforcement agencies and prosecutors 
additional tools they need to combat drug smuggling.
  The bill would also add an attempt and conspiracy provision to the 
aviation smuggling law to allow prosecutors to charge people other than 
the pilot who are involved in aviation smuggling. This would give them 
a new tool to prosecute the ground crews who aid the pilots as well as 
those who pick up the drug loads that are dropped from ULAs in the U.S. 
Finally, the bill directs the Department of Defense and Department of 
Homeland Security to collaborate in identifying equipment and 
technology used by DOD that could be used by U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection to detect ULAs.
  In addition to Senator Heller, I am pleased to be joined by Senators 
Bingaman and Feinstein in introducing this legislation. I urge my 
colleagues to support the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill and 
an article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                S. 1485

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Ultralight Aircraft 
     Smuggling Prevention Act of 2011''.

     SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE AVIATION SMUGGLING PROVISIONS OF 
                   THE TARIFF ACT OF 1930.

       (a) In General.--Section 590 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 
     U.S.C. 1590) is amended--
       (1) by redesignating subsection (g) as subsection (h); and
       (2) by inserting after subsection (f) the following:
       ``(g) Definition of Aircraft.--As used in this section, the 
     term `aircraft' includes an ultralight vehicle, as defined by 
     the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.''.
       (b) Criminal Penalties.--Subsection (d) of section 590 of 
     the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1590(d)) is amended in the 
     matter preceding paragraph (1), by inserting ``, or attempts 
     or conspires to commit,'' after ``commits''.
       (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     apply with respect to violations of any provision of section 
     590 of the Tariff Act of 1930 on or after the 30th day after 
     the date of the enactment of this Act.

     SEC. 3. INTERAGENCY COLLABORATION.

       The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and 
     Engineering shall, in consultation with the Under Secretary 
     for Science and Technology of the Department of Homeland 
     Security, identify equipment and technology used by the 
     Department of Defense that could also be used by U.S. Customs 
     and Border Protection to detect and track the illicit use of 
     ultralight aircraft near the international border between the 
     United States and Mexico.
                                  ____


               [From the Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2011]

    Ultralight Aircraft Now Ferrying Drugs Across U.S.-Mexico Border


 Mexican organized crime groups are using ultralight aircraft to drop 
 marijuana bundles in agricultural fields and desert scrub across the 
 U.S. border. The incursions are hard to detect and are on the upswing.

                          (By Richard Marosi)

       They fly low and slow over the border, their wings painted 
     black and motors humming faintly under moonlit skies. The 
     pilots, some armed in the open cockpits, steer the horizontal 
     control bar with one hand and pull a latch with the other, 
     releasing 250-pound payloads that land with a thud, leaving 
     only craters as evidence of another successful smuggling run.
       Mexican organized crime groups, increasingly stymied by 
     stepped-up enforcement on land, have dug tunnels and 
     captained boats to get drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. 
     Now they are taking to the skies, using ultralight aircraft 
     that resemble motorized hang gliders to drop marijuana 
     bundles in agricultural fields and desert scrub across the 
     Southwest border.
       What began with a few flights in Arizona in 2008 is now 
     common from Texas to California's Imperial Valley and, mostly 
     recently, San Diego, where at least two ultralights suspected 
     of carrying drugs have been detected flying over Interstate 
     8, according to U.S. border authorities.
       The number of incursions by ultralights reached 228 in the 
     last federal fiscal year ending Sept. 30, almost double from 
     the previous year. Seventy-one have been detected in this 
     fiscal year through April, according to border authorities.
       Flying at night with lights out, and zipping back across 
     the border in minutes, ultralight aircraft sightings are 
     rare, but often dramatic. At least two have been chased out 
     of Arizona skies by Black Hawk Customs and Border Protection 
     helicopters and F-16 jet fighters. Last month, a pair of 
     visiting British helicopter pilots almost crashed into an 
     ultralight during training exercises over the Imperial 
     Valley.
       The smuggling work is fraught with danger. High winds can 
     flip the light aircraft. Moonlight provides illumination, but 
     some pilots wear night-vision goggles. Others fly over major 
     roads to orient themselves. Drop zones are illuminated by 
     ground crews using strobe lights or glow sticks. There is 
     little room for error.
       At least one pilot has been paralyzed; another died in a 
     crash.
       In Calexico, Det. Mario Salinas was walking to his car one 
     morning last year when he heard something buzzing over the 
     Police Department on 5th Street. ``I hear this weird noise, 
     like a lawn mower. I look up and I see this small plane,'' 
     said Salinas, who pursued the aircraft before it eluded him 
     as it flew over the desert.
       The ultralight activity is seen as strong evidence that 
     smugglers are having an increasingly difficult time getting 
     marijuana over land crossings. Authorities noticed a surge in 
     flights in Imperial County after newly erected fencing along 
     California's southeast corner blocked smugglers from crossing 
     desert dunes in all-terrain vehicles.
       U.S. Border Patrol agents, accustomed to scouring for 
     footprints and tracks in the sand, have had to adapt. They 
     are now instructed to turn off their engines and roll

[[Page S5261]]

     down their windows so they can listen for incursions by air.
       ``We're trained to look down and at the fence. Now we have 
     to look up for tell-tale signs of ultralight traffic,'' said 
     Roy D. Villarreal, deputy chief patrol agent of the El Centro 
     sector in the Imperial Valley.
       Although the new trend poses serious challenges, 
     authorities point out that ultralights are a decidedly 
     inefficient way of getting drugs across the border. 
     Traffickers who once moved thousands of pounds of drugs 
     across the border now appear to be packing their loads by the 
     pound, not the ton, authorities say.
       The ultralights--lightweight planes typically used as 
     recreational aircraft--are customized for smuggling purposes. 
     All-terrain wheels are added for bumpy landings. Second seats 
     are ripped out to add fuel capacity. Drugs are loaded onto 
     metal baskets affixed to the bottom of the framing. From 150 
     to 250 pounds of marijuana are generally carried, depending 
     on the weight of the pilot. Some ultralights are shrouded in 
     black paint, with even the plastic tarp covers for the 
     marijuana blackened for stealth entries.
       Radar operators at Riverside County's Air and Marine 
     Operations Center, where general aviation air traffic across 
     the country is monitored, have trouble detecting the 
     aircraft.
       Flying as low as 500 feet, their small frames are hard to 
     distinguish from trucks. Many appear, then disappear from 
     radar screens. Others never appear at all, and the ultralight 
     trend has prompted border authorities to develop new radar 
     technologies specifically designed to detect the aircraft.
       ``There are indications of larger amounts of activity,'' 
     said Tony Crowder, director of the Air and Marine Operations 
     Center, which is housed at March Air Reserve Base.
       The close cooperation among radar operators, helicopter 
     pilots and agents on the ground has resulted in some 
     successes.
       Ultralight pilots no longer land on U.S. soil after 
     authorities began responding quickly to offloading sites. The 
     Mexican Army has seized four ultralights around Baja 
     California in recent weeks after being tipped off by U.S. 
     authorities.
                                 ______