DEA’s $86m spy plane for combating Afghanistan drug trade left sitting in Delaware hanger

The agency’s activities in the country were wound down last year, and now the plane is unlikely ever to fly there

A high-tech spy plane purchased by the US Drug Enforcement Agency to aid its fight against Afghanistan's drug trade proved to be an overpriced boondoggle that so far has never been flown (AFP/Getty)

An $86m spy plane kitted out by the US Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) for the skies above Afghanistan has instead been sitting in a hangar in Delaware, it has emerged.

The DEA bought the ATR 42-500 plane for less than $10m in 2008, to help combat the Afghan drug trade, which is thought to contribute to funding terrorism. But the agency then spent almost $65m on modifications and surveillance equipment, as well as building a customised hangar to house the aircraft in Kabul.

However, a report published this week by the Inspector General’s Office of the US Justice Department found that the plane “remains inoperable, resting on jacks, and has never actually flown in Afghanistan.”

The DEA’s activities in Afghanistan were wound down last year, and now the plane is unlikely ever to fly there. It was grounded in Delaware after failing a Federal Aviation Administration inspection in 2014. A DEA official told investigators the plane would eventually be used for anti-drug trade efforts in Latin American and the Caribbean.

The report concludes that “the more than $86 million spent on the purchase and modification of the DEA's ATR 500 aircraft with advanced surveillance capabilities to support the DEA's counter-narcotics mission in Afghanistan has been an ineffective and wasteful use of government resources.”