EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Binational cooperation has resulted in the arrest of smugglers using drones to monitor U.S. Border Patrol movement and guide migrants past the U.S. border wall in El Paso and New Mexico.
“Transnational criminal organizations are using drones as scouting strategy to evade detection, but Border Patrol agents remain vigilant and adaptive, staying ahead of emerging threats,” Chief Patrol Agent Anthony “Scott” Good, of the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, posted on X on Friday.
A Sept. 12 arrest took place in the Anapra neighborhood of Juarez, Mexico. It is an area known by authorities on both sides of the border as a staging point for migrant smuggling into the desert and mountains of southern New Mexico.
The Mexican army (SEDENA) and officers with the Chihuahua state police detained the individual but it is not known if they seized the drone.
On Sept. 12, Mexican authorities in Salvacar — across the border from El Paso’s Lower Valley — arrested a second individual and seized a vehicle and electronic equipment from him. The man only identified as Adrian G.A. allegedly interfered with the duties of the Mexican army and resisted being arrested by the state police, according to state authorities.
A photo released by the Chihuahua police shows the suspect in front of what police characterized as equipment used to fly a drone.
Earlier this month, Chihuahua Public Safety Secretary Gilberto Loya disclosed that transnational criminal organizations in the area are using drones to drop drugs into South-Central El Paso and to track the movement of U.S. border agents on the other side of the border wall in New Mexico.
Such devices typically fly above the border wall while guided by someone on the Mexican side. Loya said Chihuahua police are also finding cartel surveillance drones in the southern and western parts of the state and have downed a few of them.
The desert of southern New Mexico has become one of the busiest migrant smuggling corridors along the southwest border of the United States since the White House all but shut down asylum claims between ports of entry. At least two migrant stash houses located near the border wall in New Mexico have been linked to La Empresa, a criminal group operating in Anapra.
The name and charges faced by the drone operator in Mexico were not immediately available.
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