Mexican criminal organizations known as cartels are using drones to carry out violent attacks on the public and rival gangs south of the border, according to a former U.S. Border Patrol official.
Carl Landrum, retired chief of the Border Patrol’s Laredo, Texas, region who now works for counterdrone defense company Dedrone, testified before House lawmakers Tuesday afternoon that “dozens and dozens” of violent incidents in Mexico have been facilitated through the unmanned aerial systems.
“These are dangerous, offensive capabilities that are being utilized by the cartels,” said Landrum, vice president of civilian programs and strategy at Dedrone, during a border technology hearing before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, and the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability.
Last October, eight Colombians in Mexico were arrested after building drones with improvised explosive devices for a local narcotics smuggling gang.
In January, cartel-controlled drones were identified by Mexican authorities as the culprit behind a gruesome attack on remote Mexican villages in the state of Guerrero. Five people were burned to death as a result of the drone-facilitated attacks.
As recently as last week, residents of an indigenous village in Mexico’s Michoacan state were attacked through the use of drones operated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Landrum said part of the problem was the “very limited amounts” of counterdrone technology. The United States has the ability to detect drones but is severely limited in its “offensive” capabilities or in how it can physically go after and take down drones in the sky.
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In the government’s fiscal 2022, Border Patrol reported that it used its own drones to spot and intercept 51,248 illegal immigrants who came across the border.
Drones, also called unmanned aerial systems, have increasingly been used by federal law enforcement agents at the U.S.’s land, air, and sea borders to track unauthorized entries. This past year, they played a unique role in helping agents get a bird’s-eye view of groups that are unable to be tracked on foot or by vehicle.