SAN DIEGO -- Federal officials will unveil unmanned drone aircraft Monday that will soon be circling the skies of Southern California, using radar to find illegal border crossers.

The planes, called Maritime MQ-9 Predator B Guardian Unmanned Aircraft Systems, have already been used along the Mexican border in Arizona and Texas, and along the Canadian border in North Dakota. They will be based at a private airport operated by General Atomics about 5 miles east of Lake Los Angeles, in the Mohave Desert some 160 miles north of the Mexican border.

Agency spokesperson Juan Munoz-Torres told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the drones based in the California high desert will use radar, in addition to long-range video cameras, to spot smugglers or immigrants by passing ports of entry.

"This one has the capacity of detecting vessels in the water," Munoz-Torres said. "The sensors on board the aircraft are different."

The Predators are manufactured by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in Poway, which also makes the Sky Warrior. Both types of drone are used by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and other countries.

The Predators used by Customs and Border Protection are controlled remotely by a two-person team on the ground, Kimberly Casitz, a spokesperson for the company, told the Union-Tribune.

"It's like a cockpit," Casitz said. "Someone is flying the aircraft; the other one is handling the sensors, cameras and radar."

Any intelligence gathered is transmitted from the aircraft to law enforcement.

Castiz said its main purpose is to counter drug smuggling, the unmanned aircraft also will transmit data on human smuggling by sea, which has been on the rise. Customs and Border Protection agents apprehended 22 illegal immigrants Thursday on a boat off La Jolla.