Chinese citizen arrested for using drone to take photos of US military base, feds say

The U.S. Attorney General’s Office released a press statement about the arrest of a Chinese citizen for allegedly taking photos of a military base with a drone in November.

An affidavit said that officials at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County were alerted to a drone flying over the base on Nov. 30 through the use of drone detection technology. The detector indicated a drone was flying over the base about a mile above ground level for an hour and had been launched from a public area near the base called Ocean Park.

‘This defendant allegedly flew a drone over a military base and took photos of the base’s layout, which is against the law.’

Security personnel from the base went to Ocean Park and encountered 39-year-old Yinpiao Zhou of Brentwood. They said that he was concealing a drone in his jacket and that it was the same as the one that was detected over the base.

After obtaining a federal search warrant, they searched the drone and found photographs of Vandenberg Space Force Base from the air. Investigators also said Zhou had searched online for “Vandenberg Space Force Base Drone Rules” and had messaged another person about hacking his zone to allow it to fly higher than it was supposed to fly.

Zhou is a Chinese citizen and a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. He was charged with violation of national defense airspace as well as failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation.

“This defendant allegedly flew a drone over a military base and took photos of the base’s layout, which is against the law,” read a statement from United States attorney Martin Estrada. “The security of our nation is of paramount importance and my office will continue to promote the safety of our nation’s military personnel and facilities.”

Zhou was arrested at San Francisco Airport on Monday as he was about to get on a plane to China.

If convicted, Zhou faces a statutory maximum sentence of four years in federal prison.

On Wednesday, Rep. Jefferson Van Drew of New Jersey said that large mysterious drones flying in the skies of New Jersey might be Chinese-manufactured craft flown by Iran and called for them to be shot down.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!