DHS Says It Intercepted Nearly 2,000 Drones During FIFA World Cup, Some Before They Left the Trunk

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) says federal, state and local security teams intercepted nearly 2,000 drones during the FIFA World Cup, a scale of aerial policing he says grew so refined that agents could sometimes locate an operator before the drone ever left the trunk of a car.

Mullin made the comments Monday, July 20, on "The Will Cain Show," according to Fox News. He said security teams averaged more than 30 intercepted drones per match, not counting incidents around fan festivals or after games ended. Of the nearly 2,000 drones brought down, Mullin estimated roughly 700 were actually confiscated.

"We got so good at [intercepting them], we started being able to bring them down before they even got out of the trunk of a car," Mullin said, according to Fox News. "We started being able to recognize where they're at."

What the no-fly zones looked like

According to Mullin, security perimeters extended three miles and 3,000 feet around World Cup stadiums, with tighter one-mile, 1,000-foot restrictions around FIFA Fan Festivals.

Mullin said most of the drones belonged to spectators trying to get an aerial view of matches, not people intending harm. But he said a subset raised real concern.

"Some of them we felt like was actual a threat, that they were testing the perimeter. Those are some of the drones that we confiscated," Mullin said. He added that some operators were "licensed individuals that knew better, but they were trying to push it," and that authorities believed some flights were attempts to probe security capabilities rather than sightseeing.

A separate vehicle threat at a Fan Fest

Mullin also disclosed that authorities disrupted what he called an imminent threat targeting a World Cup Fan Fest involving vehicles, though he declined to name the location. "I can't give you the location of it, but the threat was about using vehicles," he told Cain, according to Fox News. He said federal, state and local officials coordinated to thwart the plot.

No further details on that vehicle threat, including whether anyone was arrested or charged, have been released in available reporting. That leaves an open question about the scope of the plot and how it was resolved.

The legitimate civil-liberties question

A no-fly zone spanning three miles and 3,000 feet around a stadium, plus a one-mile radius around fan festivals, covers a lot of ordinary airspace in a densely populated host city. Hobbyist drone operators and licensed commercial pilots who strayed into that zone, even unintentionally, apparently had their equipment seized alongside people DHS suspected of testing security. Mullin's own account acknowledges that "licensed individuals that knew better" were among those confiscated from, not just anonymous bad actors.

Critics of expansive counter-drone authority have long asked what appeal process exists for someone whose several-thousand-dollar drone gets seized because they flew a hobby flight too close to a perimeter, with no intent to case security. Neither Mullin's remarks nor Fox News's reporting addresses whether confiscated equipment is returned, whether owners face charges, or what standard agents used to distinguish a tourist's drone from a genuine perimeter test.

The scale is real, the independent verification is not yet

Mullin's numbers come entirely from his own account. No independent tally from FIFA, other federal agencies, or host cities is cited in available reporting to confirm the nearly 2,000 figure, the roughly 700 confiscations, or the per-match average he described.