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Mexican Cartels Fly 9,000 Drone Flights into U.S. to Surveil Law Enforcement Operations
judicialwatch ^ | 4/12/2022 | judicialwatch

Posted on 04/14/2022 6:04:11 PM PDT by bitt

Mexican drug cartels have conducted more than 9,000 drone flights into U.S. airspace in the last year to surveil American law enforcement and security operations in the southern border region, a senior Homeland Security official told Judicial Watch this week. The drones are observing federal, state, county, and city agencies near the Mexican border, including the U.S. Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas National Guard, county sheriffs and local police. The Border Patrol, which operates under Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has captured about a dozen of the drones, and accessed the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAVs) guidance and memory systems to gain intelligence information, according to a high-level official at the agency.

Judicial Watch learned about the Mexican cartel drone incursions during a recent visit to the southern border and specifically while interviewing federal officials at the CBP Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas. Judicial Watch is further investigating the matter and has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with CBP, the 60,000-member agency charged with keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S., for all records regarding the use of drones by criminal organizations operating along the U.S.-Mexico border for the purpose of surveilling U.S. law enforcement officials or otherwise facilitating illegal activity. The federal public-record request includes, but is not limited to, all information depicting the known or estimated number of instances of the use of such technology, as well as all reports, intelligence assessments, analyses, or similar records related to their use.

Federal officials on the ground tell Judicial Watch that the cartels use the UAV surveillance flights to facilitate human smuggling and drug trafficking. Specifically, they help identify gaps in border coverage and assist the cartels in overwhelming certain areas to create a diversion for moving sensitive or high value loads through alternate border locations. The data analyzed from the confiscated drones has also provided U.S. authorities with other law-enforcement sensitive information that cannot be made public, government sources said, adding that drug cartels started using the devices a few years ago. Brandon Judd, the president of the union representing the nation’s 20,000 Border Patrol agents, told Judicial Watch the drones are also used to smuggle small amounts of drugs into the U.S. “They are dropping fentanyl,” Judd said this week. “They fly into certain locations, drop them to the ground and fentanyl is taken off of them and they take back off into Mexico.” The drones are not military grade, Judd confirmed, but rather “run of the mill” that can be purchased anywhere.

...more


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: aliens; aviation; border; droneflights; drones; drugcartels; drugs; mexicancartels; uav
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1 posted on 04/14/2022 6:04:11 PM PDT by bitt
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To: Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; ...

p


2 posted on 04/14/2022 6:04:29 PM PDT by bitt ( <img src=' 'width=50%> )
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To: bitt

3 posted on 04/14/2022 6:06:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin ((The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.))
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To: bitt

Democrats sold out to the cartels long ago.


4 posted on 04/14/2022 6:06:45 PM PDT by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant)
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To: bitt

Incredible.

Even more incredible, that no major fake news providers have told us about these aerial invasions.


5 posted on 04/14/2022 6:07:08 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Anyone, who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.!" ~ (Voltaire)!!!)
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To: bitt

Hopefully 9,000 drones were shot down.


6 posted on 04/14/2022 6:09:07 PM PDT by Arcadian Empire (The Baric-Daszak-Fauci spike protein, by itself, is deadly.)
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To: bitt

Shotguns.

Lots of shotguns are the answer.


7 posted on 04/14/2022 6:11:22 PM PDT by jdsteel ("A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it." Sorry Ben, looks like we blew i)
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To: bitt

Bump.


8 posted on 04/14/2022 6:12:22 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
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To: Arcadian Empire

9 posted on 04/14/2022 6:14:18 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Williams

dimmacrats are a cartel.


10 posted on 04/14/2022 6:14:19 PM PDT by matthew fuller (He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious. Yogi Berra )
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To: Grampa Dave

Not really new. Several years ago the cartel operating out of Sonora were flying ultralights to smuggle drugs across the border. I recall one that crashed just south of Gila Bend, AZ. Years ago the smugglers would employ locals to spy on the Border Patrol at their shift change and counted how many vehicles and agents were headed out to the field.


11 posted on 04/14/2022 6:14:22 PM PDT by ssapro (SSAPRO/ EXBP)
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To: Grampa Dave

Yup,
Campo,California would have
Been a Great place to Fly
one of these by the
Minutemen. Cartels own it
All now.


12 posted on 04/14/2022 6:17:45 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (On the Other hand,,, Free Men Choose- - SLAVES OBEY)
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To: jdsteel

Pull!


13 posted on 04/14/2022 6:17:54 PM PDT by Cold Heart
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To: bitt

The big players in D.C. are on the payrolls. Bet on it.


14 posted on 04/14/2022 6:23:37 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: ssapro

Gila Bend you say,,,
Descanso California had handbills printed and passed around Warning about
Ultralites, 10yrs ago.
.
Good times.


15 posted on 04/14/2022 6:24:04 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (On the Other hand,,, Free Men Choose- - SLAVES OBEY)
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To: bitt

Those apaches and Yaqui have sure gotten fancy I’ll give em that

They literally can hold off Mexican military

Maybe not air assault or naval bombardment of Culiacan but skirmishes they sure do

Look how they folded over Chapo Poqueño


16 posted on 04/14/2022 6:27:31 PM PDT by wardaddy (Faulkner never knew Free Republic but he coined its nickname...The Sound and The Fury)
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To: bitt

9,000 flights? How about putting the military along the border for target practice? Let them shoot down any and all drones that cross into the US.


17 posted on 04/14/2022 6:28:32 PM PDT by Reno89519 (FJB. Respect America, Embrace America, Buy American, Hire American.)
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To: bitt

Shoot ‘em down.


18 posted on 04/14/2022 6:30:33 PM PDT by beethovenfan (The REAL Great Reset will be when Jesus returns. )
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To: ssapro
 
 
The same crap went on at our bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are ways to "compensate" for that sort of snitchery.
 
 

19 posted on 04/14/2022 6:33:54 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: jdsteel

Remember 32 inch barrels on those over/under shotguns for longer range. This would be kinda like shooting FITASC with those drones. FITASC is Sporting Clays on steroids, all long shots.


20 posted on 04/14/2022 6:40:12 PM PDT by Colt1851Navy (What was wrong with Nixon?)
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