On Tuesday, May 19, the government supported amendments to the Criminal Code that provide for tightening criminal liability for crimes committed using drones.
Recently, law enforcement agencies have increasingly identified cases where crimes, such as smuggling, are committed by moving goods, substances, or other valuables using devices that travel through the air. Such devices include, for example, balloons, drones, and meteorological probes.
The use of such devices poses a threat:
• to the safety of aircraft flights and public order;
• to the health, life, and property of people, as well as to the environment;
• by allowing circumvention of border and customs control mechanisms;
• by enabling crimes to be committed remotely, complicating their detection.
At the same time, devices moving in airspace and launched from hostile states to Latvia can be used in hybrid warfare to intimidate society, create threats to physical security, as well as to increase the burden on state institutions and discredit them. Thus, crimes involving such devices significantly increase the degree of danger and public harm of the acts.
The Ministry of the Interior believes that the current regulation of the Criminal Code does not adequately reflect the increased public danger of such crimes. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the Criminal Code by strengthening criminal liability in cases where crimes are committed using devices that move through the air, such as balloons, drones, and meteorological probes.
To ensure that the regulation provided for in the draft law can be applied in various cases and covers any existing aerial devices, as well as devices that may be created in the future, the draft law does not include an exhaustive list of such devices.
The Criminal Code already provides for aggravating circumstances, such as committing a crime using weapons, explosives, or other dangerous methods.
Now, a new aggravating circumstance will be introduced into the law — committing a crime using a device that moves in airspace.
The article on smuggling will also be supplemented: criminal liability will be tightened in cases where smuggling is committed using a device that moves through the air. The same will apply to the illegal importation of drugs, explosives, weapons, and ammunition, as well as radioactive and hazardous substances into Latvia.
The changes still need to be approved by the Saeima.
