Congressman claims mystery drones spooking New Jersey for weeks come from Iranian ‘mothership’

Large unidentified drones have flooded the skies of a major US state for weeks, puzzling authorities – and now a congressman has made a stunning claim.

Large unidentified drones displaying advanced technology have been flooding the night skies of New Jersey for weeks, spooking residents and leaving authorities scrambling to identify them.

Now a New Jersey Congressman says he’s pretty sure he knows where they’re coming from, urging that they be “shot down”.

Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said he had “gotten to know people” and he had it from “very high sources, very qualified sources”, that “Iran launched a mothership, probably about a month ago, that contains these drones”.

“That mothership is off the east coast of the United States of America,” he told Fox News on Wednesday morning.

“They’ve launched drones, everything that we can see or hear. Again [this] is from high sources. I don’t say this lightly.”

The Pentagon has since denied Mr Van Drew’s claims.

“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called ‘mothership’ launching drones toward the United States,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said during a Wednesday briefing.

“At this time we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or are the work of an adversary. We’re going to continue to monitor what is happening but at no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring. These are not US military drones. This is being investigated by local law enforcement.”

Mystery drones have been flying over New Jersey. Picture: X

Mr Van Drew told Fox News the three possible origins for the drones were the US government, “glorified hobbyists” or an adversary nation.

“We know it’s not our own government, because they would have let us know,” he said.

“It could have been some glorified hobbyist or hobbyists that were doing something unbelievable. They don’t have the technology. The third possibility was somebody, an adversarial country doing this. Know that Iran made a deal with China to purchase drones, motherships and technology in order to go forward.”

He stressed “the sources I have are good, I can’t reveal who they are because they’re speaking to me in confidentiality”.

“These drones should be shot down,” he said.

“Whether it was some crazy hobbyist that we can’t imagine, or whether it is Iran and I think it very possibly could be, they should be shot down. We are not getting the full deal. The military is on alert with this.”

The comments left Fox News host Harris Faulkner stunned.

“You’ve given us some pretty dire information just here and I want to make sure our viewers are digesting this,” she said.

“Iran has the capability to pull up along our eastern seaboard and launch drones the size of an SUV into the skies of several states, particularly New Jersey where we know the incoming President has a large home in the same county where some of these drones have been seen.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Picture: khamenei.ir/AFP

Faulkner questioned how the drones were being fuelled.

“They have to land somewhere, drones don’t fly forever,” she said.

“Why don’t they close down the airspace? Yes it’s inconvenient, yes it’s the holidays — shut it down. But if you start shooting things and you don’t know how they’re fuelled, that’s going to be mass explosions. This isn’t like one spy balloon. Congressman, this is serious.”

Mr Van Drew insisted “we’ve got to bring them down”.

“I don’t know exactly where they’re landing,” he said.

“I have some information … again this isn’t just Jeff Van Drew … I’m telling you the straight deal from very high positioned individuals who are telling me this. The bottom line is they’re launching them, they’re all across the country. We don’t even have anything like this. We’ve got to get them down, we’ve got to determine how they function, what they do, make sure that we can get them and you’re right, in a safe way. This is a clear and present danger to the United States and our President-elect, and this is serious business.”

Drones all over my town in Bergen County NJ tonight. I walked up by the police station and library b/c that’s where they were clustered. I have tons of videos. Police said they are aware and following their movements. (Sorry for the commentary I was sending to my friends) pic.twitter.com/RXw0a2j0fY

— Kate🇺🇸 (@Kate_inNJ) December 9, 2024

The startling claim comes as officials have continually told Americans that the drones pose no threat — even as the FBI has admitted it has no idea what they are or how to stop them.

The large drones have been spotted flitting across the night skies across New Jersey for weeks, baffling residents with mysterious arrays of flashing lights and seemingly aimless movements.

During a briefing on Wednesday, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the US government “at this time have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or are the work of an adversary”.

“We’re going to continue to monitor what is happening but at no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring,” she continued.

“These are not US military drones. This is being investigated by local law enforcement.”

Meanwhile, more footage captured by a New Jersey mother and shared on X showed blinking lights buzzing over Bergen County on Sunday night.

“They’re just pacing back and forth going very slow,” she said in the clip, adding she counted five or six flying machines hovering overhead.

“It doesn’t sound like a plane … no, no, it’s too quiet — that’s a drone.”

Similar videos have flooded social media since November 18, when police first responded to calls about the drones hovering over Morris County.

Sometimes numerous objects have been spotted flying in formation, and they’ve begun appearing across parts of New York, too.

One Sunday alone, there were 49 reported sightings, mostly in New Jersey, although Governor Phil Murphy said some of those could have been misidentified aircraft or multiple reports of the same object.

NEW: Governor Phil Murphy has spoken with White House officials about the ‘very sophisticated’ drones over New Jersey.

“The minute you get eyes on them, they go dark… This is something we’re taking deadly seriously.” pic.twitter.com/aS12aM693P

— UAP James (@UAPJames) December 9, 2024

“I don’t blame people for being frustrated,” the Democratic Governor told reporters on Monday.

“Let me say most importantly right upfront, we see no evidence, and when I say we this includes Homeland Security, FBI, Secret Service, our state police, authorities at all levels of government, the most important point to say is we don’t see any concern for public safety. Having said that, it’s really frustrating that we don’t have more answers as to where they’re coming from and why they’re doing what they’re doing.”

Mr Murphy said he had been in contact with the White House and top national security officials “pretty much all day” on Sunday.

“I’m hoping we’ll get answers sooner rather than later,” he said.

“I would just ask folks to continue to let the FBI or their local law enforcement know when they see something and we’ll continue to do everything we can with our federal partners to get clearer answers.”

He noted the technology appeared to be “very sophisticated”.

“The minute you get eyes on them they go dark,” he said.

“We’re obviously most concerned about sensitive targets and sensitive critical infrastructure. This is something we’re taking deadly seriously. We’ve got good co-operation out of the feds but we need more. We’re not aware of any nefarious drones that have crashed. If there is one that’s crashed can someone please call me and let me know where that is?”

Speculation about the objects’ origins has ranged from Chinese spy operations — to visitors from other planets — to top-secret experimental military tech operated by the US government itself.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have many answers, and we don’t want to guess or hypothesise about what’s going on,” FBI spokeswoman Amy J. Thoreson told NJ.com last week. “We are doing all we can to figure it out.”

— with NY Post

Originally published as Congressman claims mystery drones spooking New Jersey for weeks come from Iranian ‘mothership’