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Chinese gangsters use drones to spread African swine fever

Here’s a new and dishonest way to use drones. According to the SUPChina, Chinese gangsters use drones to spread African swine fever to scare farmers into selling their animals at a discount before trafficking the sick pigs across province lines and selling them in “clean” areas.

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Jordan Schneider reports that:

Chinese gangsters who are part of “swine stir fry syndicates” are using drones to spread African swine fever, according to Chinese state media (and initially reported in English-language media by the SCMP), scaring farmers into selling their animals at a discount before trafficking these sick pigs across province lines and selling them in “clean” areas.

Spreading rumors about the epidemic and buying pigs at a low price is a common way for Swine Stir Fry Syndicates to profit.

In some places, Swine Stir Fry Syndicates first plant infected dead pigs in healthy farms, or plant contaminated pig feed, then spread news of the outbreak, and buy pigs at discount to flip them.

In interviews, some villagers said that pig traffickers often spread rumors of an outbreak of African swine fever in their villages to scare pig farmers into selling their pigs. In one of the top 100 pig breeding counties, the head of a breeding enterprise said that since the outbreak of African swine fever, the group’s branch has found drones in the pig breeding area dropping unknown items that were later found to contain African swine fever virus.

“Swine Stir Fry Syndicates make bank, and don’t care if the pigs they’re selling are sick or healthy.” The grassroots are concerned that if the infected pigs are not caught in time, control of the disease will be impossible.

Experts believe that the current round of the “pig cycle,” along with African swine fever, will result in the continued rise in pork prices, thereby giving Swine Stir Fry Syndicates a golden opportunity.

You can read the entire article about gangsters using drones in China right here.

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Avatar for Haye Kesteloo Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at DroneDJ, where he covers all drone related news and writes product reviews. He also contributes to the other sites in the 9to5Mac group such as; 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys and Electrek. Haye can be reached at haye@dronedj.com or @hayekesteloo