Chinese man arrested, accused of flying drone over and taking photos of Vandenberg Space Force Base

A Chinese national who lives in Northern California has been arrested on suspicion of flying a drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base and taking photos of the facility, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday. Yinpiao Zhou, 39, a Chinese citizen living legally in the U.S., in Brentwood, Contra Costa County, has been charged with failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and violation of national defense airspace, the Justice Department said in a statement. 

He was arrested Tuesday at San Francisco International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to China and had been due to appear in court Wednesday. 

An affidavit filed on Dec. 8 says that on Nov. 30, the base's drone detection systems were alerted to a drone flying over the base. 

"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," the Justice Department said.

Base personnel spoke with Zhou on the day, the department said, noting that he was accompanied by another person. They found that he had concealed the drone in his jacket at the time. 

After obtaining a federal search warrant, agents searched Zhou's drone and found several photographs of the space force base taken via the drone, the government said. 

"A search of Zhou's cellphone showed Zhou conducted a Google search approximately one month earlier for the phrase 'Vandenberg Space Force Base Drone Rules' and messaged with another person about hacking his drone to allow it to fly higher than it could otherwise," the release said. 

The Justice Department said Zhou is a Chinese citizen with legal residency in the U.S. He returned to the U.S. from a visit to China in February 2024. The statement said the person found with Zhou in November had arrived from China just several days earlier.

If convicted, Zhou faces a maximum sentence of four years in federal prison. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.