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Massive Houthi Drone Seizure Reported in Aden by Yemeni Opposition Faction

Seized Houthi equipment
Some of the material seized from the containers (Southern Transitional Council)

Published Oct 2, 2025 5:22 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

A massive seizure of drones and other military equipment apparently bound for the Houthis has been reported by an opposition faction known as the Southern Transitional Council. The faction, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates and is active in southern Yemen, reports it discovered 58 containers in the port of Aden carrying drones and components and weighing a total of 2,500 tons.

In a statement issued on October 2 in Aden by the spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Al Naqib, they report the equipment was being unloaded from a commercial vessel arriving from Djibouti, which had been diverted to Aden because of damage to port facilities in Hodeidah. Details of when the seizure occurred, and from what ship or ships, are unclear, but the goods seized, from the limited imagery published, are of Chinese origin, disguised as ordinary cargo.  

The consignment is listed to have included “drones and their launch platforms, drone production machine tools and lathes, spare parts for various light and medium weapons, wireless communication devices, jet engines, surveillance, espionage, and jamming devices and electronic chipboards used in drone control systems.”

Also seized were large quantities of materials used for the manufacture of drones, including carbon fiber, insulation materials, sheet metals, and raw plastics, as well as components needed for the manufacture of target acquisition sensors, communications devices, and anti-jamming equipment.

 

 

The whole consignment comprises all the parts, materials, and machine tools necessary to establish a production line both for drones and for their command and control systems.  It is likely that the consignment was ordered and dispatched to replace or augment production facilities which have been destroyed in previous Israeli and American air raids, for example, in the successive U.S. and British air raids on the Hubayshi drone factory south of Sanaa in March and April.

 

The Hubayshi drone factory at 15.155087N 44.257652E was damaged in an RAF attack on April 29 (Google Earth/CJRC)

 

The group reported the discoveries were made during routine customs inspection of cargo in the Aden Port Free Zone, and apparently were not based on detailed intelligence. The seizures do, however, appear to be additional to those made by the Counter-Terrorism Service in Aden on August 2. On this earlier occasion, drone equipment had been packed into five containers declared to be holding car parts, which had been unloaded from a ship arriving directly from China.

U.S. Central Command also reported in July that the Yemeni forces in opposition to the Houthis made their largest ever seizure of Iranian weapons bound for the Houthis. In total, the U.S. said that over 750 tons of munitions and hardware were intercepted inbound aboard a dhow.