HARRISON, NEW JERSEY (RFD News) — New details are emerging after a number of agricultural drone sprayers stolen in New Jersey were recovered, raising new concerns about how the technology could be misused.
Police say the 15 drones were found in a storage facility during a routine inspection after being taken last month from a logistics company. Homeland Security confirmed the theft in a post on X.
Each drone is capable of spraying up to 40 gallons of liquid chemicals over a 15-acre plot, prompting concerns about their potential use beyond agriculture. The equipment is valued at more than $750,000.
New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Ed Wengryn joined us on Friday’s Market Day Report to discuss how incidents like this highlight a broader issue for the industry.
“This is something I think farmers should always be concerned about. They store chemicals and fertilizers on their farms and there are people who would take advantage of them for nefarious activities. This is one of those things where agriculture gets excited about new toys and new technology that they can use but there’s always the darker side for misuse of these products.”
In his conversation with RFD News, Wengryn said the situation also raised alarms given the timing of upcoming large-scale events.
“New Jersey is hosting the World Cup in another month. Those types of attacks are really high on our homeland security infrastructure right now, and so a product like that going missing from its regular distribution route raised that concern, but these are the types of tools that could be used to attack a large mass gathering.”
He adds that education will be an important next step, with Cooperative Extension Service helping farmers better understand how to safely store and manage this type of equipment as the technology becomes more widely used.
