Secret U.S. Drone Program Helped Capture Mexican Cartel Bosses
Intelligence provided by the unarmed drones was essential to the arrests of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, one of his sons and other top drug smugglers
“… The flights, operated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Central Intelligence Agency at the Mexican military’s request, have also provided vital information for large drug seizures, the officials said. Using cameras that can capture a license plate from 20,000 feet above, the drones feed surveillance video on cartel smuggling operations, and map out clandestine labs, to authorities on both sides of the border, the officials said.
… U.S. drone intelligence also led to the arrest of the elder Guzmán, commonly known as “El Chapo,” in Mexico in 2013 and 2016, the Mexican and U.S. officials said, though he escaped prison twice. In 2023, drones helped find “El Chapo’s” son, Ovidio Guzmán, who had taken over the drug business with his brothers.
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Trump’s threats of unilateral military strikes on Mexican soil have led to domestic backlash that could pressure President Claudia Sheinbaum to curtail the sensitive security cooperation with the U.S., political analysts in Mexico have said. At the same time, Mexican officials have raced to head off tariffs and show Trump that they have the drug and migrant smuggling issues under control.
The CIA’s covert drone program in Mexico has been in operation for more than two decades, current and former Mexican officials said. The Mexican government acknowledged the U.S. Customs and Border Protection drone flights in 2011, emphasizing that these operations were supervised by Mexican agencies.
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Sheinbaum said the drone program forms part of a bilateral security and drug interdiction effort that goes back years. But in response to the nationalist outcry over Trump’s threats, her administration proposed a law last week to stiffen penalties for acting on behalf foreign governments without official clearance.
American drones have been flying over Mexican airspace since the early 2000s, around the time that “El Chapo” made his first of two escapes from Mexican prisons. The drug lord became a prominent leader of the Sinaloa Cartel in the early 1990s and helped turn it into an international drug-trafficking juggernaut, making him one of the most wanted men alive.
In the years after his escape, the U.S. began to provide imagery of his whereabouts, a former Mexican official said. It took more than a decade to recapture him. …”
Also:
Mexico Extradites 29 Jailed Drug Bosses to U.S., Including Killer of DEA Agent
Drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero has long been wanted by DEA for killing of agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena
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