The CIA has despatched drones on secret missions over Mexico to spy on drug cartels — and should use them for armed strikes, in keeping with former and present officers.
The covert missions, carried out with MQ-9 Reaper drones, are sizing up the drug gangs and their laboratories over the southern US border as a doable precursor to attempting to get rid of them by air, sources informed CNN.
The drone flights, which have been begun beneath the Biden administration however beforehand unreported, go “well into sovereign Mexico,” a US official informed the New York Instances.
“Countering drug cartels in Mexico and regionally is a priority for the CIA as a part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to end the grave threat from narco-trafficking,” a CIA rep mentioned, in keeping with CNN. “Director [John] Ratcliffe is determined to put the CIA’s unique expertise to work against this mult-faceted challenge.”
The drones flying into Mexico are at present unarmed however will be simply tailored to suit payloads and perform precision strikes on targets, as recurrently utilized by the US in conflicts in Iraq, Somalia, and Syria, CNN mentioned.
Mexico’s authorities mentioned it’s monitoring a reported uptick in American spy airplane missions across the border.
“We cannot rule out espionage because we do not know exactly what was done. However, they did not violate national airspace,” Mexico Protection Minister Ricardo Trevilla insisted to reporters final week.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, responding to a press query Friday about elevated US flights over worldwide airspace close to the nation, mentioned, “The important thing here, I think, in the declaration, which is what we have always proposed, is that they share information with the government of Mexico.”
For its half, Mexico has stepped up its response to the Trump administration’s considerations over the illicit fentanyl commerce, deploying 1000’s of troops to the border this month to try to crack down on smuggling.
Trump has publicly referred to as for the usage of army drive in opposition to violent drug cartels since 2019, throughout his first time period, when he mentioned the US was able to “wage war” on the teams.
“The cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army,” he informed reporters on the time.
Trump signed an government order when he was sworn into workplace for his second time period Jan. 20 that strikes to designate such drug gangs as international terrorist organizations.
Requested by reporters on the time if he would ship particular operations forces over the border, the president replied, “Stranger things have happened.”
Trump’s nationwide safety adviser, Mike Waltz, has referred to as for offensive motion in opposition to Mexican cartels, co-introducing laws in 2023 whereas a Florida congressman that may have approved army drive in opposition to such teams.
Trump’s secretary of protection, Pete Hegseth, has additionally mentioned he’s open to utilizing drive inside Mexico.
“All options will be on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border,” he lately informed Fox Information.
