Santo Domingo.- The mere presence of the Brazilian made intercept planes and alerts by U.S. air surveillance on radar blips over the airspace have virtually halted all drug airdrops in Dominican Republic.

Although the purchase of the -Super Tucano planes was met with strong criticism, reports of drug airdrops have fallen to zero since the start of their deployment around August last year.

Dominican Air Force chief Israel A. Diaz on Thursday revealed the start of the interdiction exercises "Sovereign Sky ll" to prevent the entry of suspect aircraft into the country’s airspace.

Quoted by news source elinformedigital.com, the official said when the U.S. radar platform plane, known as Airways, flying over the Caribbean airspace and detects a suspect flight, it sends the information to the Dominican military, which in turn scrambles two Super Tucanos on a mission to “persuade the intruder" to desist from their intention. “Several steps occur before arriving at that target."

Diaz said that a group of officers who work in operations follow the steps so the Super Tucanos can prepare and take off on a coordinated pursuit of the aircraft which didn’t identify itself. “We’re doing it even before the aircraft enters Dominican airspace, that’s to say that we’re going ahead so that target doesn’t even enter."

Diaz added that the Super Tucanos are equipped with modern 50 caliber machine guns, and can launch missiles.