WEAPONIZED CONSUMER DRONES
USE OF WEAPONIZED CONSUMER DRONES IN MEXICAN CRIME WAR By Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan, and David A. Kuhn, Small Wars Journal-El Centro and C/O Futures, LLC © Copyright 2020-2021
B
ACKGROUNDER
The Mexican cartels have engaged in a three-phase evolutionary process of aerial narcotics trafficking, along the US Southern border, progressing from conventional aircraft (both converted airliners and light aircraft) to ultralight aircraft to drones [e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles/systems (UAVs/UAS)]. This process has been prompted by increased US homeland security activities over the course of a number of decades. The cartels are said to have been using drones for such crossborder narcotics trafficking purposes since at least 2010. Between 2012 and 2014, about 150 confirmed cartel drone incursions were documented by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Later, during the 2015 through 2020 period, over another 170 confirmed incidents have taken place per US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) headquarters. No publicly available data sets have been released, however, to validate either of these numbers. Further, some captured drones used in smuggling have been determined (per their internal data) to have engaged in hundreds of flights on their own. This has been juxtaposed with actual drone incident data – imagery and text – available in the open press and social media which is relatively sparse and sporadic in nature.
In April 2019, the validated use of a cartel drone for ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) took place in multiple locations along the El Paso sector of the border to facilitate illegal migrant entry into the US. The cartels engage in human smuggling both independently and simultaneously (by means of the migrants carrying loads on their backs) with narcotics trafficking. Cartel drone ISR use along and over the border to facilitate narcotics trafficking had previously been reported but was not before confirmed by means of a specific referenced incident. While the cartels have roughly a decade of experience with using hobbyist and consumer drones for cross-border narcotics trafficking, and later load decoy and even ISR purposes, the use of drones as weapons is a much more emergent and ominous occurrence. It is indicative of a broadening of drone usage from solely ‘illicit business purposes’ to ‘military combat capacity’ in some of the cartels’ repertoires.
WEAPONIZED DRONE INCIDENTS To date, four weaponized consumer drone incidents linked to the cartels have been evident in Mexico roughly over the last three years or so:
counteriedreport.com
69
