On the first day of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as thousands gathered at the fan festival in East Downtown, John Alexander Meza allegedly began flying a drone.
It was Thursday, June 11 — a day when no World Cup matches were being played in Houston — when Meza allegedly began flying a DJI Mavic 3 drone for about 2 minutes. His purpose, he would later tell law enforcement, was to capture video for Houston’s First Baptist Church.
Meza, whose LinkedIn profile labels him as a cinematographer for the church, was flying the drone near the 600 block of Live Oak Street in East Downtown, just a few blocks from the fan fest. Throughout the entirety of the World Cup, EaDo was named as a “no drone zone” by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), prohibiting drones from flying within a mile radius of the fan festival up to 1,000 feet in the air. There were more stringent drone restrictions near NRG Stadium on the seven days when World Cup matches were played there…