Expert Warns Cartels Use Drones to Track Border Agents, Map Routes

MEXICO CITY — Mexican cartels are reportedly deploying commercial and modified drones to monitor U.S. security personnel, track patrol patterns and assist smuggling operations along the southern border as authorities step up efforts to detect and disable the aircraft.

U.S. military officials recorded 378 drone incursions along the border over the previous 30 days, Brig. Gen. Brian Filler of Joint Task Force-Southern Border told reporters recently. He said the number of incursions was rising and that most of the aircraft were commercially available drones equipped with cameras for surveillance linked to smuggling and human trafficking.

“On the border, the most common application is surveillance and reconnaissance as cartels look to establish a pattern of life for U.S. security personnel and support smuggling outcomes across the border,” Austin Doctor told News Outlet.

Doctor leads strategic initiatives at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center and is a criminology and criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the threat is expanding, telling News Outlet that rapidly advancing unmanned aircraft system technology creates persistent risks, including counter-surveillance, the movement of illicit cargo and potential kinetic attacks.

“Cartels increasingly exploit UAS for surveillance, illicit activities, monitoring law enforcement, scouting crossing points and coordinating smuggling operations. CBP detected over 42,000 near-border UAS flights in fiscal 2025 and over 37,000 in fiscal 2026, underscoring the scale of this challenge.”

“Under congressional authority (6 USC 124n), the Department of Homeland Security has approved Counter-UAS authorities for CBP. U.S. Border Patrol C-UAS operations, with DHS Secretary approval, cover the entire Southwest border and areas extending 100 miles inland for detection, identification, monitoring and tracking of UASs. USBP C-UAS operates in all Southwest border sectors to detect, track and mitigate these threats.”

Doctor described the ways cartels are using drones to support their operations.

“Most cartels and cartel associates still rely on commercial-off-the-shelf drones,” he said. More advanced aircraft are appearing as well, including “larger agricultural drone devices.”

He added that cartels are continuing to modify their drone designs, often to carry larger payloads, withstand countermeasures and expand their operational capabilities.

Along the border, surveillance and logistics are the primary uses, Doctor said, while weaponized drones have been documented more often inside Mexico.

“Cartels and cartel affiliates use drones for a wide range of tactics and operations. … That includes kinetic attacks on rival factions, civilians in Mexico and local security forces.”

Research by NCITE identified the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG, as “a key driver of drone innovation and adoption within the Mexico cartel ecosystem,” Doctor said. The technology, however, has spread to other cartels and across multiple Mexican states.

A 2025 seizure in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, illustrates how border communities can serve as bases for such operations. Mexico’s security cabinet said soldiers and state police detained a man and recovered 18 drones, 151 explosive objects, two improvised explosive devices, a drone detector and three counter-drone devices. The official statement did not name a cartel. Doctor said the safehouse “was reported as linked to the Los Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel.”

Weaponized drones have also been used in a Mexican border city. In October 2025, Baja California’s prosecutor said a drone dropped homemade explosive devices at an anti-kidnapping prosecutor’s office in Tijuana. The attack damaged four vehicles but injured no one. Authorities called it an act of criminal retaliation but did not publicly identify a cartel.

Doctor said Tijuana was an exception to the broader pattern, in which drone attacks have taken place farther inside Mexico. Border areas remain “critical facilitation hubs,” he said, adding that the possibility of more kinetic attacks in those regions “remains credible.”

Mexico says it is responding with interdictions, counter-drone equipment, military operations and new criminal penalties. During last month’s Águila Alta operation in the Tijuana-San Diego area, the defense ministry said Mexican forces neutralized five drones, detained one person and seized a gun, magazines and ammunition.

One aircraft was initially detected in the U.S. and later neutralized in Mexico following information-sharing with Customs and Border Protection. Officials said the operation deterred criminal activity and strengthened coordination but released no before-and-after data showing whether drone traffic subsequently declined.

Mexico made certain drone-related conduct a federal crime in 2024, including dropping explosives, adapting aircraft to carry weapons or drugs and surveilling public officials.

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Earlier this month, Mexico deployed 500 soldiers and National Guard members, two helicopters, drones and mobile and fixed counter-drone systems in five Tamaulipas municipalities. The Navy separately reported 159 personnel, 11 vehicles and two drones under Operation Sable.

In response to News Outlet’s questions, a Department of War spokesperson said Joint Task Force-Southern Border, CBP and the Department of Homeland Security use layered monitoring and detection systems to “observe, evaluate and, if needed, engage threats.” 

What remains unknown is the number of cartel-operated drones, which groups control individual flights and whether Mexico’s countermeasures are producing results.

Doctor said increased counter-drone resources are important but cautioned that “it is almost certain that cartels will continue to innovate and adapt.”