NEWS ALERT: Chinese citizen charged with flying drone over key US military, NASA rocket launch base, taking photos

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From CBS News: A Chinese national who lives in Northern California has been arrested on suspicion of flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base and taking photos of the facility, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday. Yinpiao Zhou, 39, a Chinese citizen living legally in the U.S., in Brentwood, Contra Costa County, has been charged with failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and violation of national defense airspace, the Justice Department said in a statement.

He was arrested Tuesday at San Francisco International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to China and had been due to appear in court Wednesday.

An affidavit filed on Dec. 8 says that on Nov. 30, the base’s drone detection systems were alerted to a drone flying over the base.

Base personnel spoke with Zhou on the day, the department said, noting that he was accompanied by another person. They found that he had concealed the drone in his jacket at the time.

Highlights of a press release from the Justice Department reveals more details:

LOS ANGELES – A Northern California man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint for allegedly flying a drone over and taking photographs of Vandenberg Space Force Base, the Justice Department announced today. 

Yinpiao Zhou, 39, of Brentwood, is charged with failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and violation of national defense airspace.

Zhou was arrested Monday at San Francisco International Airport prior to boarding a China-bound flight and made his initial appearance Tuesday in United States District Court in San Francisco.

Zhou remains in federal custody pending prosecutors’ appeal of a federal magistrate judge’s decision to release him. No plea was taken and his arraignment is expected to be scheduled in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

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

According to an affidavit filed on December 8 with the complaint, on November 30, 2024, drone detection systems at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County detected a drone flying over the base. The drone systems detected that the drone flew for nearly one hour, traveled to an altitude of almost one mile above ground level, and originated from Ocean Park, a public area next to the base. Base security personnel went to the park, spoke to Zhou and another person accompanying him, and learned that Zhou had a drone concealed in his jacket – the same one that flew over the base. 

Agents later searched Zhou’s drone pursuant to a federal search warrant and saw several photographs of Vandenberg Space Force Base taken from an aerial viewpoint. A search of Zhou’s cellphone showed Zhou conducted a Google search approximately one month earlier for the phrase “Vandenberg Space Force Base Drone Rules” and messaged with another person about hacking his drone to allow it to fly higher than it could otherwise.

Zhou is a Chinese citizen and lawful permanent resident of the United States, most recently returning to the United States from China in February 2024. The person accompanying Zhou at Ocean Park most recently entered the United States from China on November 26.

The House Homeland GOP commented on a report about the latest arrest, writing, “There’s no doubt—our adversaries are utilizing drones to undermine our national security. To combat these threats, Congress must act on @RepMarkGreen’s bill to help law enforcement respond to the UAS threats facing critical infrastructure, airports, & other key sites.”

Details of a similar incident, which happened in January, was included in an October report on the DMLNewsApp.  Fengyun Shi, 26, a Chinese national in the U.S. on a student visa, was sentenced to prison for flying a drone outside a shipyard run by HII, the company that builds nuclear submarines and the Navy’s newest generation of the Ford Class aircraft carrier.  FBI agents discovered Shi had photographed Navy vessels in dry dock, some of which were under construction.  He was arrested on January 18, as he was about to board a flight back to China on a one-way ticket.

The same report also includes details from a Wall Street Journal publication, which explains that a mysterious fleet of drones swarmed a U.S. military base along the Virginia coast in a restricted airspace for 17 days late last year.

This is eerily very similar to the current situation happening nightly over the state of New Jersey.

The WSJ wrote about last year’s incident:

Over 17 days, the drones arrived at dusk, flew off and circled back. Some shone small lights, making them look like a constellation moving in the night sky—or a science-fiction movie, Kelly said, “‘Close Encounters at Langley.’” They also were nearly impossible to track, vanishing each night despite a wealth of resources deployed to catch them.

The drones were last spotted over the Langley Air Force Base on December 23. According to the report, a flurry of meetings took place among US officials, but they ultimately decided against shooting them down.

READ MORE IN THE REPORT BELOW:

NEWS ALERT: Unknown drone fleet reportedly breached US military base airspace for 17 straight days

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