Homemade illicit breweries got a surprise of their lives yesterday in Vadodara, Gujarat State in Western India, when they suddenly found their hideouts surrounded by police – who had used drones to survey them before sending in the ground troopsto round up the suspects and confiscate their illegal beverages.

The latest raid closed the crime curtains of ten such breweries in the Bhaliyapura, Vadsar, Bil, Koyal and Ranoli areas along the banks of Vishwamitri River, which are located so deep in the forest that it is almost impossible to get to them through conventional transport.

“The gangs that brew country-made liquor choose isolated spots, and many of them are not even accessible by two-wheelers,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Jaydeepsinh Jadeja told local media. “We have always had information about these breweries, but (in the past) by the time we got to them, the accused would have fled with all their stock.

“Often, policemen spot smoke coming out of the ravines of the river but we cannot ascertain the origin.

“This time, we decided to bet on the drones, which we sent to take pictures of the breweries over the past two days. On Monday, our teams reached all the spots and seized hundreds of litres of country-made liquor.”

However, the police were only able to confiscate the alcohol and implements used to make it; the brewers themselves had disappeared.

No such misfortune befell the veteran police drone belonging to the West Midlands Police Department in the UK, though, which have become so good at law enforcement that they have done it again.

Last night, one of the police drones for the WMP helped capture three men attempting to break into vehicles in the Nechells area in Birmingham.

The police had received calls about the three men, after they were scene tampering with vehicles in the area.

One of the drones was deployed as part of the response team, and it tracked the man from the air as they tried to escape.

The men took to a nearby railway line, which the drone’s eye still trained on them. The police drone is equipped with a very powerful camera that can take thermal images.

And when it did switch to thermal, the doom was nigh for the suspects, who were finally nabbed by the West Midlands Police Dog Unit and the Force Response Team and taken into custody.