(NewsGlobal.com)- According to a recent study by Judicial Watch, Mexican cartels have a virtual airline of drones flying over the United States to watch law enforcement and border security activities.
Judicial Watch, a DC watchdog group, said in a special Corruption Chronicles report that the cartels have completed more than 9,000 drone flights into U.S. airspace in the last year.
This information came from an interview with a “top Homeland Security officer.”
The US Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas National Guard, county sheriffs, and local police are among the federal, state, county, and city entities that the drones monitor along the Mexican border. According to a high-ranking officer at the agency, the Border Patrol has seized approximately a dozen drones and accessed the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) navigation and memory systems to acquire intelligence information; according to the report,
According to the watchdog, the drone flights were uncovered during a recent trip to the southern border, where the watchdog met with federal authorities in the CBP Rio Grande Valley sector.
Judicial Watch is continuing its investigation 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 United States, for all records regarding the use of drones by criminal organizations operating along the US-Mexico border to surveil US law enforcement officials or otherwise facilitating illegal activity,
Federal officials on the scene told Judicial Watch that cartels employ drone systems to ensure the success of their people smuggling and drug trafficking operations.
“Specifically, they assist the cartels in identifying holes in border coverage and assisting the cartels in overwhelming specific regions to create a diversion for transporting sensitive or high-value cargoes via alternate border points.
According to the watchdog, which often files Freedom of Information requests — both petitions and lawsuits — Brandon Judd, the union chairman representing thousands of Border Patrol agents, said the drones are also used to transport small amounts of drugs into the United States.
According to the watchdog, which often files Freedom of Information requests — both petitions and lawsuits — Brandon Judd, the union chairman representing thousands of Border Patrol agents, said the drones are also used to transport small amounts of drugs into the United States.
Fentanyl is being air-lifted and dumped on the ground, and then they return to Mexico.
According to the study, agents in the El Paso sector reported seeing what they thought was a drone being used as a “lookout” only a few years ago.
“An agent monitoring the border with an infrared camera detected the drone heading north into the United States from Mexico,” Judicial Watch claimed.
“Last year, Mexico’s leading newspaper revealed that several of the country’s most known cartels, like Jalisco Nueva Generación, employed drones with explosives to assault police in the western portion of the country,” according to the article.
