Last month, three drones rigged with explosives detonated outside a prosecutor’s office in Tijuana, Mexico, besieging six cars parked outside with a blast of nails, BBs and metal fragments. The attack was orchestrated by a cartel, Mexican government officials confirmed, and targeted an anti-kidnapping unit of the Baja state attorney general’s office. It is the latest high-profile example of first-person view drones being used by cartels to replicate military tactics being used in Ukraine.
Defense News previously reported that members of Latin American drug cartel operatives had joined Ukraine’s foreign fighter volunteer units to gain FPV drone training.
Earlier this year, a cartel ambush using an explosive drone in the border state of Chihuahua sent two Mexican military service members and one police officer to the hospital. Three drones were subsequently seized.
Attacks made by explosive-equipped drones surged to over 260 in 2023. In 2024, a drone ambush was reportedly followed by an infantry-style attack in a remote community in Mexico, according to AP.
“Nonstate actors can now acquire capabilities once reserved for nation-states,” writes Stephen Honan for the Atlantic Council on cartels’ increasing use of FPV drones. “Cartels are no longer merely criminal syndicates; they increasingly resemble hybrid entities blending organized crime, paramilitary force, and terrorist tactics.”
Hybrid Threat
The hybrid threat posed by cartels is not a new phenomenon — the line between criminal and paramilitary groups with state ties has become increasingly blurry over the last two decades, as Latin American criminal groups have turned to recruiting ex-military personnel and adopting military-style tactics to undermine the rule of law and control territory.
“While organized crime and terrorism are marked with these theoretical distinctions, in reality such differences may not be as clear, with both activities reinforcing one another,” according to a report published by CT Morse, a European Union counterterrorism think tank.
In 2011, cartels were reported to have made use of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices as well as 50 caliber anti-aircraft guns, plus machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to engage in combat with police and government entities.
“Often, these actors are not operating autonomously, but rather symbiotically with State and non-State parties to an armed conflict,” according to a 2023 report published by the Red Cross. “In some neighborhoods of Acapulco, Rio de Janeiro, Karachi and Durban, drug trafficking cartels, militia and mafia engage in pitched battles with heavily armed military, paramilitary and police units.”
Counter-Drone Measures
As the threat of drones used by transnational criminal organizations persists, the U.S. military increasingly faces the demand to secure domestic air space at a rapid pace.
In 2024, Air Force Gen. Gregory M. Guillot of NORAD told lawmakers that over 1,000 drone intrusions were taking place across the U.S. border with Mexico each month.
“I don’t know the actual number — I don’t think anybody does — but it’s in the thousands,“ Guillot told lawmakers according to a Defense Department release. ”We… probably have over 1,000 a month.”
The problem persists.
This month, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) told CBS News in an interview that drone intrusions along the border and over U.S. military installations remain a “severe and growing” problem.
To combat FPV drone threats to domestic installations, NORTHCOM this month formed a rapid response team equipped with a counter-drone fly-away kit, capable of deploying quickly to defend bases across the country.
Additionally, U.S. Special Operations Command released a solicitation for a contractor to provide a 10-day course for operators to learn all aspects of building and using FPV drones.
To enhance border surveillance and security, manufacturer Draganfly is unveiling its new Outrider drone this month at a border security summit in Arizona. The multi-mission drone is designed to enhance border patrols and increase surveillance capabilities of remote areas potentially used by cartels as access points.
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
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