Smugglers' air force? Drug war sees rise in use of ultralight planes.

On a cold winter night in the high desert, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent instinctively looks to the moonlit sky for signs of ultralight aircraft, the motorized hang gliders that daring drug smugglers fly low over the US-Mexican border.

"Basically, ultralight smuggling is a quick, easy, and efficient way of smuggling marijuana into the US," says Kevin Kelly, assistant special agent in charge of the Nogales, Ariz., office.

Drug traffickers trying to conquer a fortified Southwest border have used catapults, tunnels, and boats to get their product into the United States. In recent years, they have increasingly turned to ultralights, which can carry several hundred pounds of illicit cargo ready to drop to accomplices on the ground.

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Customs and Border Protection recorded 223 ultralight incursions along the 2,000-mile border. That is fewer than in 2010 but about double the 2009 numbers.

Congress has taken notice of the cross-border ultralight flights in areas from Arizona to California and Texas. Last month, the Senate unanimously passed legislation to toughen penalties for those who use ultralights to smuggle drugs, a concept Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) of Arizona had pushed before she was wounded in a mass shooting last January in Tucson. The House now will consider the legislation.

Because the Federal Aviation Admin­is­tra­­tion does not categorize ultralights, the aircraft do not fall under existing aviation smuggling laws. A new law would establish the same penalties for trafficking whether by plane, car, or ultralight – up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The aircraft are hard to spot because radars "typically do not provide coverage down to ground level in remote areas," says Ian Gregor, an agency spokesman.

For pilots of the aircraft, the goal is to remain elusive for as long as it takes to deliver the goods and return home, sometimes in just a matter of minutes. If all goes well, ground crews pick up the drugs before authorities take note.

"Before you know it, they're gone," says Tony Estrada, sheriff of Arizona's Santa Cruz County. "It's a very fast maneuver."

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