A number of the US’s most refined spy planes that sometimes monitor the Chinese language and Russians at the moment are flooding the air focusing on Mexican drug cartels as a part of President Trump’s crackdown, a brand new report says.
The ultra-hi-tech plane embrace Navy P-8s with superior radar — and a U-2 initially designed to conduct high-altitude surveillance of the Soviet Union in the course of the Chilly Struggle, CNN stated Monday.
It’s the primary time a U-2 is believed to have been utilized by the US to root out cartels, army consultants advised the outlet.
The decked-out spy planes have flown at the least 18 missions over the southwestern US and in worldwide airspace close to the Baja peninsula for the previous two weeks as a part of American authorities’ elevated surveillance on Mexico’s infamous cartels, the outlet stated.
The spy planes flew the missions over 10 days between the top of January and early February as Trump directed the deployment of 1000’s of further troops to the border and designated the Mexican cartels as international terrorists.
The border spy missions have been sometimes beforehand performed as soon as a month, whereas the particular planes have been primarily used to look at for Russian exercise in Ukraine or monitoring Russian or Chinese language submarines, earlier than Trump ramped up the US’s counternarcotic efforts.
Eleven of the flights have been performed utilizing the Navy P-8.
At the very least one flight, on Feb. 3, used the U-2 spy aircraft.
Even whereas flying alongside the border, the planes are in a position to gather intel far inside Mexico.
On his first day again in workplace, Trump designated Mexico’s cartels as terror organizations whereas additionally declaring a nationwide emergency on the border.
Trump’s border crackdown has included the top of the US’s “catch and release” coverage, in addition to the deployment of 1000’s of further troops. The president additionally just lately compelled Mexico to deploy 10,000 of its personal troopers to patrol the opposite facet of the border by threatening 25% tariffs.
Since Trump entered workplace, there was a rise in border violence, with Border Patrol brokers in Texas taking hearth from suspected cartel members in Mexico.
Mexican drug cartels have additionally ordered assaults on US border brokers with kamikaze drones and different explosives in a determined bid to thwart the crackdown on the border, in response to a leaked memo obtained by The Publish.
“I think the cartels would be foolish to take on the military, but we know they’ve taken on the Mexican military before. But now we have the United States military,” border czar Tom Homan advised ABC Information on Thursday.
“Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely, because the cartels are making record amounts of money,” the previous ICE chief added.
