Super Bowl saw 54 drone incursions: Homeland Security

LAS VEGAS — The Department of Homeland Security’s top technology official said Wednesday law enforcement working at the Super Bowl dealt with 54 drone incursions earlier this year.

“I’m not saying any of them are nefarious, but just think about it. All they need is access,” William N. Bryan, acting under secretary for science and technology at the department, told hundreds of private sector security professionals during a speech at the International Security Conference.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies told the Washington Examiner in February they were ready to take down any unauthorized drones caught buzzing around Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the National Football League’s championship game between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams in February.

Homeland Security agencies and the FBI worked with the Georgia Department of Public Safety and the Atlanta Police Department, including Special Weapons and Tactics, for six months to come up with the best way to handle any drone that made its away into or above the stadium.

Atlanta’s stadium can hold 70,000 people, and an estimated 100 million people from around the world watched the game, making it a high-profile event a domestic terrorist might target.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened its retractable roof for the game, which allowed drones to enter the facility. While an unauthorized drone itself may not be a threat to the public, Homeland Security officials have previously warned about the risks they pose because of what they could carry. Border Patrol agents along the southern border have seen cartels in Mexico use drones to fly small quantities of high-potency drugs into the country.

[Previous coverage: The government declares the Super Bowl a ‘no drone zone’]

Last fall, Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal said someone could plant synthetic fentanyl on the drone and release it over a group of people. Just three tiny grains of the strongest fentanyl that’s already being smuggled into the U.S. is enough to put a person in a coma.

“It’s the perfect criminal tool,” Villareal said. “A single pound of fentanyl [dropped above a crowd] would devastate a whole stadium.”

The issue for security officers at the Super Bowl was how to respond to a threat. Even if they do spot a drone that appears to be carrying drugs, they can’t easily shoot it down if it’s moving quickly. Instead, law enforcement at the Super Bowl relied on counterdrone tools to take them down.

Counterdrone tools sometimes look like bullpup rifles that shoot an invisible, electronic signal to the drone with instructions to immediately return to its operator or to land immediately. These tools do this by jamming local cellphone towers so that they can shut down the drone and the means by which it is getting a signal from its operator.

Other devices create an invisible blanket over an area that prohibit drones from flying into them.

Only select federal agencies have the legal authority to request electronic countermeasures, or to ask the Federal Communications Commission for advanced permission to jam all activity on wireless networks if a legitimate threat is detected and the drone-killing device needs to be used.

Bryan said NFL stadium owners have spent billions of dollars on security in recent years.