Cartel drones become flashpoint between US and Mexico

MONTERREY, Mexico - The chaotic closure of the El Paso airport overnight on Feb 10, which US authorities blamed on an incursion by a Mexican cartel drone, brought into sharp focus the growing use of unmanned aircraft by crime groups and the crackling tensions between the countries over how to deal with it.

Over the past year, US security officials have increasingly expressed concern about the use of drones by Mexican cartels, which mostly employ crudely adapted versions of off-the-shelf models to drop drug packages or surveil trafficking routes.

There have also been cases, in parts of Mexico further away from the US border, of cartels using the remotely controlled aircraft to drop explosives in deadly attacks.

The rising use of drones by Mexican cartels comes as the technology has significantly transformed traditional warfare on the world's battlefields,

most notably in Ukraine.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who oversees the Federal Aviation Administration, said the presence of a Mexican drug cartel’s drone in US airspace had prompted

the El Paso air traffic ban,

which was initially slated for 10 days, but then shortened to only seven hours.

But government and airline officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, later contradicted Mr Duffy’s assertion, saying that the FAA had closed the airspace due to concerns that a laser-based counter-drone system being tested by the US Army nearby could pose risks to air traffic.

Aviation experts also said that a drone sighting near an airport would typically lead to a brief pause on traffic, not an extended closure.

The office of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum did not immediately respond to requests for comment on growing tensions over cartel drones.

Ms Sheinbaum said on Feb 11 that her administration had no information about drone traffic along the border.

White House press spokeswoman Anna Kelly said US President Donald Trump has “left all options on the table,” in response to a request for comment on the drones being a flashpoint in bilateral relations.

‘Incursion, not attack’

Mexican crime groups have been using cheap commercial drones for more than a decade to conduct surveillance and transport contraband, according to Ms Vanda Felbab-Brown, a security expert.

The technology is crude, she said, but it has still caused bloodshed in Mexico.

Some of the largest crime groups, particularly the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, have outfitted commercially available drones with crude bombs or other explosive devices to attack Mexican security forces and civilians, particularly in central parts of Mexico, including in the state of Michoacan, she added.

Along the border, the cartels mostly use drones to airdrop drugs or to spy on US border agents in order to better evade them during smuggling operations.

The Pentagon has said there are more than 1,000 drone incursions along the US-Mexico border each month.

Experts say there’s never been a Mexican cartel drone attack on US soil or against US law enforcement.

“It’s an incursion, not an attack,” said Mr Scott Brown, a former special agent in charge at Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Arizona, where he was involved in law enforcement’s counter-drone efforts along the border.

“There’s a marked difference.”

US and Mexican authorities are working together to combat the rise of drones in the border region; earlier this week, officials from New Mexico and the neighbouring Mexican state of Chihuahua met to discuss these risks.

Threat or pretext?

The airspace closure comes amid repeated comments by US President Donald Trump that he wants to use US military force against the Mexican cartels, which he says “run Mexico.”

Mexico’s Ms Sheinbaum has said any unilateral US action on Mexican soil would be a grave breach of her country’s sovereignty and cross a red line.

“The last time the United States came to Mexico with an intervention, they took half the territory,” Ms Sheinbaum said in November, referring to the Mexican–American War from 1846 to 1848.

The Trump administration has been increasingly raising alarm about cartel drones as a threat.

“When I heard about the airport closure, my concern was, is this a pretext for a counter-strike by the US?” Mr Brown said.

Mr Steven Willoughby, director of the counter-drone programme at the US Department of Homeland Security, testified to Congress in July that it is “only a matter of time before Americans or law enforcement are targeted in the border region”.

But Mr Carlos Perez Ricart, a Mexican security expert, disputed such a characterisation.

“There’s no evidence that the cartels would attack the US with drones, it doesn’t make sense for them,” he said.

“But such a narrative does serve Trump’s interests in creating a justification for military action.” REUTERS