According to a statement made by state media, Chinese criminals illegally used drones to throw down contaminated things into pig farms. The next step was to smuggle pigs and sell them on a higher price.

To achieve their goals criminals used different methods which involved spreading of gossips about African swine fever, or leave lifeless pigs at the edge of the road to convince farmers in the presence of the disease. Also, farm worker detected unmanned aircrafts when they were dropping unidentified substances into a sty.

The financial gain which lawbreakers could obtain was about 1,000 yuan per one pig.