The U.S. executive is investigating whether or not the Chinese citizen arrested later allegedly aviation a drone over Vandenberg Field Power Bottom in California perpetrated alternative offenses.
Ultimate occasion, the U.S. lawyer’s place of job for the central district of California introduced that 39-year-old Yinpiao Zhou, a lawful everlasting resident of the U.S., used to be “charged with failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and violation of national defense airspace.”
However court docket filings point out that “the government is continuing to investigate whether ZHOU engaged in additional, more serious offenses.”

A Chinese language nationwide flag is pictured throughout the medal rite for the ladies’s 63kg judo match throughout the 2022 Asian Video games in Hangzhou in China’s japanese Zhejiang province on Sept. 25, 2023. (PHILIP FONG/AFP by the use of Getty Pictures)
Moment Zhou has now not been slapped with fees of spying in the name of China, in a sworn affidavit justifying the arrest warrant, the FBI agent heading the probe into Zhou described their very own revel in, noting, “I am familiar with tradecraft and techniques utilized by foreign adversarial nations and the efforts those nations undertake to collect intelligence on elements of military infrastructure of their interest.”
Zhou used to be arrested Dec. 9 prior to boarding a aviation to China, in step with the clicking shed concerning the arrest.
“This defendant allegedly flew a drone over a military base and took photos of the base’s layout, which is against the law,” U.S. Legal professional Martin Estrada, famous.
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The Segment of Justice seal is not hidden on a lectern forward of a press convention pronouncing efforts towards laptop hacking and extortion on the Segment of Justice in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 28, 2018. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP by the use of Getty Pictures)
The shed, bringing up a sworn statement, reported {that a} drone used to be detected above the ability on Nov. 30.
“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,” the clicking shed famous. “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.
“Brokers nearest searched Zhou’s drone pursuant to a federal seek warrant and noticed a number of images of Vandenberg Field Power Bottom taken from an aerial point of view. A seek of Zhou’s mobile phone confirmed Zhou performed a Google seek roughly one hour previous for the word ‘Vandenberg Field Power Bottom Drone Laws’ and messaged with someone else about hacking his drone to permit it to fly upper than it would differently.”
Middle of the night sightings of unidentified plane in Fresh Jersey and alternative portions of the rustic had been making nationwide headlines, however American citizens had been left short of solutions.
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Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks to Senior Writer at Politico Magazine Ankush Khardori during Politico’s annual AI and Tech Summit on Sept. 17, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Segment of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas stated throughout an look on ABC’s “This Life” that some of the sightings have been drones but that others have been “manned-aircraft which might be usually flawed for drones.” He said “we all know of disagree overseas involvement” related to “the sightings within the north-east.”
Fox Information’ Lee Ross contributed to this document.