EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Transnational criminal organizations are using drones to track the movement of U.S. Border Patrol agents near the border wall on a daily basis, according to a federal official in El Paso.
The practice was first disclosed to the public last September, when Mexican authorities acting on a tip from U.S. officials arrested two drone operators near the border wall in Juarez, Mexico.
“We see the drones every day. The cartels use the drones to identify where the authorities are and how they can manage entries,” said Walter N. Slosar, the newly appointed interim Chief Agent of the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector. “We are trying to identify exactly where they are to stop that tactic.”
Slosar said agents in El Paso are working with partner agencies in Mexico to tighten security on the ground, in the air and under the ground.
“Do I worry? I worry about everything: land, air, underground,” Slosar said in a news conference with Spanish-speaking media this week. “We are trying to make sure the border is safe on both sides. That is why we work with federal, state and community partners – to identify where they are using the drones and what we have to do to combat them.”
Federal officials and security experts also have expressed concern about the possible existence of additional cross-border tunnels in the region following the Jan. 9 discovery of a quarter-mile long structure leading from Juarez to Gate 28 of the U.S. border wall.
“We don’t know if there is another tunnel or there is no other tunnels, but we are working every day to find out if there are. And if they exist, we will stop those illegal operations,” Slosar said.
Mexican cartels last month carried out a bomb attack using a drone against Mexican National Guard troops in southern Chihuahua. The cartels also have been known to use drones to bomb rivals and towns in Michoacan and Guerrero states.
In El Paso, Mexican and U.S. law enforcement have confirmed to Border Report drones have been used by local gangs to air drop drugs in El Paso neighborhoods.
At least three transnational criminal organizations operate in the El Paso-Juarez-New Mexico region, with clearly defined “turf.” They include the Sinaloa cartel in Juarez’s lower valley and near the New Mexico-Arizona state line, La Empresa in the Sunland Park-Santa Teresa, New Mexico area, and La Linea or Juarez cartel everywhere else, according to Border Report interviews with law enforcement and research.
Read: Read More