Texas-Mexico Border: Cartel Mines, Drone Bombs Elevate Security Concerns
Another "green light" given Mexican Cartels to mount attacks on US soil reported.
A Mexican cartel has posted a video of one of its drones dropping a bomb on a vehicle five miles south of the Pharr International Bridge between Texas and Mexico in the state of Tamaulipas - as numerous Mexican media outlets are reporting Mexican Army Bomb Disposal Teams disabled 15 roadside "narco-mines" there.
While this level of cartel violence has remained south of Mexico's border with Texas - an incident last week that saw cartel gunmen fire across the border on US Border Patrol Agents - coupled with word this week that the cartels have approved flying their bomb-equipped drones across the border into the US add up to an increasingly dangerous situation.
The Mexican Border State of Tamaulipas is "Ground Zero" for these developments. The US State Department has declared Tamaulipas a "no-go" zone for US residents. The map of this "Do Not Travel" area includes more than a dozen International Bridges from Texas into Mexico from Laredo southward along the Rio Grande to Brownsville.
US Government employees are also advised against traveling on dirt roads anywhere in that Mexican State bordering the US - and with good reason:
In recent days, a truck with Texas plates, a tractor, and a Mexican Government vehicle have struck roadside "narco-mines," resulting in several deaths and serious injuries in Tamaulipas.
The mines are believed to have been planted by warring factions of the Gulf Cartel (CDG) known as the "Scorpions" and "Metros," who are battling each other for control of territory both claim as their own.
In recent days, several social media accounts that cover cartel activities, as well as mainstream media outlets in Mexico, have reported that Tamaulipas State Police and Mexican Military units have been carrying out mine-clearing operations there.
A website operated by the largest publisher of printed newspapers in Mexico (Grupo Reforma) reported on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, that the Mexican Army found 15 "narco-mines" in Tamaulipas.
So far, none of those cartel IEDs have been found on the Texas side of the border - but another deadly cartel weapons development is even more worrisome for US law enforcement officers.
Authorities in South Texas have long been encountering cartel drones hovering over them controlled by cartel operators outside their reach just across the border in Mexico.
US authorities have drones of their own - but, unlike the cartels, theirs aren't allowed to cross the border - and (according to the Chief Border Patrol Officer of the Rio Grande Sector) the cartel's drone forces outnumber law enforcement's by 17-to-1.
In 2023 she told a Congressional Oversight Committee that her agents faced over 10,000 drone incursions and 25,000 drone sightings - and that's just during one year in her sector of the border with Mexico.
The image below shows a Cartel del Noreste (CDN) drone operator's camera view of migrants being moved by one of its smuggling guides on the US side of the Rio Grande near Laredo. If Border Patrol Agents are spotted nearby, the cartel can phone the guide and tell him how to evade them.
Cartel drones have also been used to carry drug loads from Mexico into the US - although this smuggling method has not always proved successful (and can be used only for very small loads, which limits its practicality - and profitability).
It's what cartel drones are carrying lately - and so far has been limited to the Mexican side of the border - that has authorities in Texas and elsewhere along the U.S. southern border worried about what may be coming next.
The cartels have equipped their drones with bombs, which they have dropped with deadly results on rival factions and Mexican Army Patrols.
The image above shows the view of an operator of an armed drone belonging to the Gulf Cartel's "Scorpions" faction targeting armored vehicles of a rival faction. The images the cartel posted on social media contained latitude and longitude coordinates, placing this recent attack just five miles south of the Pharr International Bridge between Mexico and Texas.
The New York Post reported this week of an "Officer Safety Alert" that warns the cartels have approved flying their armed drones across the border to target US Border Patrol Agents & the US Military:
"On February 1, 2025, the El Paso Sector Intelligence and Operations Center (EPT-IOC) received information advising that Mexican cartel leaders have authorized the deployment of drones equipped with explosives to be used against US Border Patrol agents and US military personnel currently working along the border with Mexico." - US Customs & Border Protection "Officer Safety Alert" (via The New York Post)
The El Paso Border Patrol Sector received this cartel intelligence just four days after Mexican Cartel gunmen fired across the Rio Grande at Border Patrol Agents (who returned fire) in Starr County, South Texas. The cartel was moving migrants from Mexico across the Rio Grande when the Border Patrol arrived to block them from the U.S. side.
During the ensuing gunbattle (during which no one was hit), the Mexican Cartel gunmen also fired at a Texas Department of Public Safety surveillance drone in an attempt to shoot it down.
The Washington Examiner's Anna Giaritelli says law-enforcement sources revealed that "the Mexican cartels (six days earlier had) put a 'green light' to fire on U.S. federal law enforcement" in retaliation for the border crackdown that President Trump has waged.
Since that order was carried out, word that the cartels have now approved their bomb-dropping drones on the US side of the border has American authorities understandably on edge.
What should the US response be if Mexican Cartels make good on threats to drop bombs onto US soil?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
Fire up the warthogs now