BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Four Myanmar nationals caught in Bangkok on Tuesday with 10 heavy-lift cargo drones they planned to smuggle to their home country will be deported there, Thai police said.

The use of drones by Myanmar’s military and myriad rebel groups fighting against its rule has ballooned during the country’s nearly five-year civil war as each side seeks to gain a strategic edge.

Myanmar ranks third globally — behind only Ukraine and Russia — for the number of drone sorties recorded by conflict monitoring group ACLED, according to a report released this year.

Thai Police Major General Prasong Anmanee told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the four Myanmar nationals were caught after authorities received a tip-off from a hotel where they stayed in the suburbs of Bangkok.

Prasong said they checked into the hotel on Sunday and received large boxes from a Thai courier on Monday.

“We went and checked and found out it was drones and those four do not have any license or other documents,” the senior officer said.

The unmanned aerial vehicles, manufactured by Chinese firm DJI, are capable of carrying 30 kilograms of weight, Prasong said.

“They said they had been ordered to bring drones to Myanmar,” he told AFP, adding that they intended to bring the bulky devices out of Thailand in pieces and deliver them to their “boss” in Myanmar.