Cartel drones become flashpoint between US and Mexico

The chaotic closure of the El Paso airport overnight Tuesday, which U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS ON THE CLOSURE U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who oversees the Federal Aviation Administration, said the presence of a Mexican drug cartel’s drone in U.S. 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 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 U.S. 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. Sheinbaum said on Wednesday morning that her administration had no information about drone traffic along the border. White House Press spokeswoman Ana Kelly said U.S. 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 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 U.S. 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 U.S.-Mexico border each month. Experts say there's never been a Mexican cartel drone attack on U.S. soil or against ⁠U.S. law enforcement.

“It's an incursion, not an attack,” said 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." U.S. 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 neighboring Mexican state of Chihuahua met to discuss these risks.

THREAT OR PRETEXT? The airspace closure comes amid repeated comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that he wants to use U.S. military force against the Mexican cartels, which he says "run Mexico." Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said any unilateral U.S. 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," 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 U.S.?" Brown said.

Steven Willoughby, director of the counter-drone program at the U.S. 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 Carlos Perez Ricart, a Mexican security expert, disputed such a characterization.

"There's no evidence that the cartels would ‌attack the U.S. 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." (Reporting ​by Laura Gottesdiener; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Stephen Coates)