Federal prosecutors in Louisiana have charged a man with flying an unregistered DJI Air 3 around Barksdale Air Force Base from March 22 to 26, 2026. Fuad Mousa Naji faces two counts: violating national defense airspace and failing to register an aircraft. He was arrested in Michigan on September 29 and is due in federal court in Shreveport on December 2.

Barksdale is home to the 2nd Bomb Wing’s B-52H bombers and the headquarters of Air Force Global Strike Command. A shelter-in-place order on March 9 opened a week of incursions over the base that DroneXL reported in March, and they ran through March 15. The period charged in Naji’s indictment begins a week after that.

Prosecutors Charge Two Counts, and Registration Carries the Higher Maximum

The indictment, filed in the Western District of Louisiana’s Shreveport Division, accuses Naji of knowingly and willfully operating a drone he knew was not registered, under 49 U.S.C. § 46306(b)(6)(A). A second count charges a national defense airspace violation. Each count carries a forfeiture notice, KSLA reported.

The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate, which reported the indictment on October 20, a day before KSLA, put the maximum at a year in prison. That figure fits the airspace count, because 49 U.S.C. § 46307 caps a first offense at one year. The registration count runs to three years under § 46306, the same section that, by DroneXL’s reading, accounts for six of the eight years a Dallas drone pilot faces. Together the two counts carry a combined statutory maximum of four years.

KSLA’s report on the filing identifies the drone as a DJI Air 3. At 720 grams it sits well above the FAA’s 250-gram registration line, and a recreational registration costs $5 and covers every drone a pilot owns for three years (our registration walkthrough has the steps).

A federal magistrate signed the order transferring Naji to the Western District of Louisiana on the day of his arrest. His initial appearance is set for the Tom Stagg U.S. Courthouse in downtown Shreveport. An indictment is an accusation, and Naji is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The Charged Period Starts After the Incursions Cassidy Described

Sen. Bill Cassidy told reporters on March 27 that there had been “five or so at Barksdale from the 9th through the 15th,” one of them a hobbyist and four of unclear origin. A briefing obtained by ABC News described waves of 12 to 15 drones over that same week.

That briefing, reported by ABC News and dated March 15, said the aircraft showed non-commercial signal characteristics, long-range control links and resistance to jamming, and that incursions like these require the flight line to be shut down. Air Force Global Strike Command pushed back on parts of the coverage on March 31, saying operations from Barksdale “continue unabated” while a federal investigation runs.

On March 27, Cassidy and a Barksdale public affairs spokesperson reported that two drones had been recovered. In a video after his briefing, Cassidy said investigators were not sure one of them was tied to the incursions and were looking for fingerprints and other clues to the drones’ origins. Neither the Advocate’s October 20 report nor KSLA’s October 21 report says whether Naji’s Air 3 was one of those drones, or how investigators connected the alleged March 22 to 26 flights to Naji.

DroneXL’s Take

My read is that this is a hobbyist case until the government says otherwise. The charges are the same airspace-and-registration pairing prosecutors brought against Yinpiao Zhou, arrested in December 2024 over a drone flight at Vandenberg Space Force Base, and Zhou pleaded guilty to the airspace count. Zhou’s case also alleged an altitude-limit override, and nothing reported about Naji’s does. Neither local report on the charges connects them to the jamming-resistant drones in the March briefing, so anyone treating Naji’s arrest as the answer to Barksdale is ahead of the record. For anyone who flies near a base, the lesson costs $5, because a registered drone takes the three-year count off the table.

Sources: The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate, KSLA, The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate, March 31, KSLA, March 27, KSLA, March 31, ABC News, 49 U.S.C. § 46306, 49 U.S.C. § 46307

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.