"U.S. officials initially said the airspace was closed to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, though others familiar with the situation later put that explanation in doubt. Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security's counter-drone program, told Congress in July that cartels use drones almost daily to move drugs across the border and to monitor Border Patrol agents."
"According to their data, in the last six months of 2024 more than 27,000 drones were detected within 500 meters (1,640 feet) of the U.S. southern border, mainly at night. Drug trafficking by air is not new and is linked to the history of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso. In the 1990s, drug trafficker Amado Carrillo Fuentes, founder of the Juarez Cartel, specialized in transporting large drug shipments in small aircraft, earning him the nickname "The Lord of the Skies.""
Criminal groups have adopted drone technology to modernize operations, smuggle fentanyl, organize migrant border crossings, surveil territory and wage war on rival cartels and Mexican authorities. U.S. officials initially said airspace was closed to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, though others later questioned that explanation. Department of Homeland Security data show cartels use drones almost daily to move drugs and monitor Border Patrol. In the last six months of 2024, more than 27,000 drones were detected within 500 meters of the U.S. southern border, mainly at night. Aerial drug trafficking in Ciudad Juarez dates to the 1990s and expanded after a 2010 Mexican alert and rising incursions through the 2010s and 2020s.
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