A Washington Post article on May 5 stated that that the FBI had conducted secret surveillance flights over Baltimore during the recent protests against the police murder of Freddie Gray. Ars Technica also covered the story and covered aviation enthusiasts efforts to track the aircraft's flight patterns, registration and speculated some on their capabilities. The revealed result was the outer edge of a secret air force that rivals size of those belonging to small European nations.
This air force is shared with not only with other federal police agencies but apparently with the CIA. It's exact size is secret and it's aircraft and budget are off the books. It has existed in this secret form since at least 1969. It shares some of the same front companies that the CIA uses for it's extraordinary rendition flights, AKA the torture taxi. Secrecy and apparent tampering with public records hides the true dimensions of this secret air force.
Ars Technica's article identified a single engine, six seat Cessna 206H (tail number N728MP) ostensibly owned by the National Aircraft Leasing Corporation circling Baltimore on April 29. The article speculated that the aircraft might be equipped with advanced sensors supplied by a subsidiary of L-3 communications, which manufactures body cameras and was implicated in the Abu-Gharib torture scandal.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records show 2 Cessna 206H's owned by National Aircraft Leasing Corporation (also listed in the database as National Aircraft Leasing Corp) along with 2 older Cessna 206Bs, 14 Cessna 182, 1 Cessna 208 and a twin engine Cessna Citation V, a model whose primary institutional purchasers are the US Army and Marine Corps.
The National Aircraft Leasing Corporation has been operating Cessna 206Bs for the FBI since at least 2006 when one collided with a ground vehicle at 5 mph while taxing toward a runway in Oregon. It's entire fleet of Cessna 206Bs was acquired between 2003 and 2005. Government Contract records show the FBI purchasing 15 Cessna 206H in April as part of an Indefinite Quantity Indefinite Delivery contract signed in 2014. Curiously the contract, government number DJF-14-1200, is for support of a Terrorist Screening Center with 16 full time employees from various agencies. There is no mention of aviation in the contract. The Cessna 206Hs are not listed in the FAA database as belonging to either the FBI or National Aviation Leasing.
http://mockingbirdpaper.com/content/fbis-secret-air-force-over-baltimore-how-big-it