A New Jersey military base said that after numerous drone incursions this year, it has established countermeasures to detect and thwart the aircraft attempting to smuggle illicit items into a federal prison within its perimeter.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, which houses FCI Fort Dix prison, confirmed to military blog The War Zone that it’s taken the defensive measures after numerous attempts to sneak drugs and other contraband into the federal penitentiary.

The airspace above the joint base has “standing flight restrictions” in place which prohibit drones or other aircraft from operating without authorization, base spokesperson Kitsana R. Dounglomchan told the outlet.

“We take each case seriously and aggressively coordinate with local law enforcement to ensure the safety and security of our installation. The majority of the drones were intercepted or recovered,” he said.
The base is located about 18 miles south of Trenton.

The Garden State has been inundated by unexplained drone sightings over the last month, with thousands of reports received so far, according to law enforcement sources.

The Biden administration has been criticized for downplaying the mysterious sightings, with White House spokesman John Kirby only recently attempting to assuage public concerns, telling reporters Monday,

President Joe Biden himself didn’t address the sightings at all until Tuesday, almost exactly one month since the first drones were spotted hovering around parts of Central Jersey, including in airspace not far from President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club.

“We’re following this closely, but so far no sense of danger,” the 82-year-old president told reporters at the White House Tuesday.

“There’s a lot of drones authorized up there,” Biden said. “I think one started it and they all — everybody wanted to get in the deal,” he opined, presumably referring to a “copycat” theory floated as a possible source for the rash of drone sightings.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst has itself been impacted by the public’s reaction to the sightings. The War Zone writes that pilots on 15 of its aircraft have reported being hit by lasers fired from the ground since Dec. 7.

All affected aviators managed to land safely, however one pilot required medical treatment. Officials have said they don’t know the identity of the culprits.

Bandits have routinely used drones to stealthily spirit all manner of illegal or forbidden items into FCI Fort Dix, a low-security facility which houses the largest inmate population of any federal prison in the US.

Just some of the items rogue UAV pilots have attempted to illegally bring into the facility include cell phones and cell phone accessories, drugs and tobacco, weight loss supplements and myriad other prohibited items, the outlet writes.

Some pilots have taken extra steps to help the unmanned craft evade the watchful eye of security forces below, including darkening onboard lights with tape to make the drones harder to spot in the air.

The base declined to reveal the full extent of its countermeasures used to disrupt the flow of airborne contraband, but said drone smuggling has been a “long-standing challenge.”