Pentagon’s 18 spy plane missions near US-Mexico border spark surveillance concerns

“We can’t regularisation retired [espionage] due to the fact that we don’t cognize what they did.”

With those words, Mexico’s Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla Trejo responded to a reporter’s question astir whether United States subject craft had engaged successful “espionage” missions adjacent and southbound of the U.S.-Mexico borderline to surveil and cod quality connected Mexican cause cartels.

At the Wednesday statesmanlike presser, Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla Trejo responded to a reporter’s question astir whether United States subject craft had engaged successful “espionage” missions, saying that helium “did not know.” (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro)

“They didn’t interruption nationalist aerial space,” added the apical subject brass astatine President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Tuesday greeting property conference.

The questioning of the defence curate came a time aft CNN reported that the U.S. subject “significantly accrued its surveillance of Mexican cause cartels implicit the past 2 weeks, with blase spy planes flying astatine slightest 18 missions implicit the southwestern U.S. and successful planetary airspace astir the Baja peninsula.”

The quality enactment said that its reporting was based connected “open-source information and 3 U.S. officials acquainted with the missions.”

Trevilla said that Mexican authorities had “located” 2 of the missions CNN referred to, including a Feb. 3 formation detected “83 km to the southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, extracurricular Mexican airspace implicit planetary waters,” according to the Defense Ministry.

Sheinbaum said past week that it was “not thing unusual that determination is simply a level that flies successful planetary airspace,” adjacent erstwhile the craft is simply a United States subject 1 successful adjacent proximity to Mexican territory a important region southbound of the U.S.-Mexico border.

However, the frequence with which the U.S. subject has precocious utilized spy planes to surveil areas adjacent to Mexican territory is acold from normal, according to CNN.

‘A melodramatic escalation successful activity’ 

CNN reported that the U.S. subject spy level missions — galore of which flew adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico borderline — were conducted implicit a play of 10 days successful precocious January and aboriginal February.

Citing existent and erstwhile U.S. subject officials, the quality outlet said that the flights correspond “a melodramatic escalation successful activity” adjacent Mexican territory.

The Pentagon has sent astatine slightest 18 surveillance flights of blase spy planes to the Mexican borderline to cod quality connected Mexican cartels, according to unfastened root information and 3 U.S. officials. https://t.co/OoGFPzon43 pic.twitter.com/Bv7VFg6p3w

— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) February 11, 2025

They travel astatine a clip erstwhile United States President Donald Trump is using the subject to unafraid the border arsenic helium seeks to stem the travel of narcotics, particularly fentanyl, into the U.S. from Mexico.

Citing a erstwhile subject authoritative “with heavy acquisition successful homeland defense,” CNN reported that the Pentagon “has historically flown lone astir 1 surveillance ngo a period astir the U.S.-Mexico border.”

“Typically, officials alternatively absorption these planes connected collecting quality connected different priorities, specified arsenic Russian enactment successful Ukraine oregon hunting Russian oregon Chinese submarines. The enactment highlights however the subject has already begun shifting finite U.S. nationalist information capabilities distant from overseas threats to absorption connected the confederate border, wherever Trump has declared a nationalist emergency,” CNN said.

The types of spy planes utilized to transportation retired the caller U.S. subject missions, including Boeing P-8 Poseidons, a Lockheed U-2 and a Boeing RC-135, are “capable of collecting quality heavy wrong Mexico” portion flying implicit U.S. airspace on the border, according to CNN’s sources.

Trevilla said determination are agreements betwixt the equipped forces of Mexico and the United States to stock specified information.

“In immoderate case, they would springiness it to us,” the defence curate said.

In his archetypal days successful office, Trump signed an enforcement bid declaring cartels overseas violent organizations, perchance laying the ineligible groundwork for the U.S. subject to participate Mexican territory. (@WhiteHouse/X)

“I conscionable had … telephone connection with the [United States] Northern Command … during which we established that we’re going to proceed adhering to the bilateral mechanisms that beryllium betwixt the equipped forces of some countries,” Trevilla said.

The U.S. authorities appears determined to bash each it tin to combat Mexican cartels, which prosecute successful a wide scope of transgression activities including cause trafficking and radical smuggling crossed the Mexico-U.S. border. On the archetypal time of his 2nd term, Trump signed an enforcement order that laid the groundwork to state cartels arsenic overseas violent organizations, portion the U.S. authorities announced past week that it intended “to prosecute full elimination of Cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations.”

In the Oval Office connected Jan. 20, Trump said that the usage of the U.S. subject against Mexican cartels successful Mexico “could happen,” portion helium declared past twelvemonth that subject strikes connected cartel targets successful Mexico were “absolutely” an option.

CNN reported that the “ramp-up” successful spy level flights adjacent Mexican territory “underscores Trump’s determination to wield the subject arsenic the pb bureau tackling counternarcotics and borderline information — 2 issues that person historically been led by home instrumentality enforcement agencies.”

“… Some existent and erstwhile U.S. officials expressed quiescent concerns to CNN that the quality flights could beryllium portion of an effort to find targets for the U.S. subject to onslaught itself,” the media outlet added.

Citing a United States Department of Justice source, the El Universal paper said that the flights were “related to accusation provided by Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada and Ovidio and Joaquín Guzmán, aka Los Chapitos,” each alleged Sinaloa Cartel leaders who are successful U.S. custody connected cause trafficking charges.

Report: Mexico expects a further escalation of US ‘actions’ astatine the border 

El Universal reported connected Wednesday that it had entree to a “high-level national authorities analysis” that predicts an “escalation” of actions from the United States connected the 3,145-kilometer agelong borderline it shares with Mexico.

“After the summation successful United States spy flights successful planetary waters to surveil Mexican cause cartels, the national authorities anticipates an escalation of quality and subject actions from the bluish neighbour connected the borderline with Mexico,” El Universal said.

Sheinbaum says that the Mexican authorities is consenting to collaborate with the United States connected information issues but is unwavering successful her stance against overseas subject intervention. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)

The authorities analysis, the paper said, states that “the intensification of these United States borderline operations volition service to unit the Mexican authorities to judge information concessions.”

El Universal didn’t accidental what those “security concessions” mightiness be.

Sheinbaum says that the Mexican authorities is consenting to collaborate with the United States connected information issues but she is opposed to the usage of the U.S. subject to combat Mexican cartels connected Mexican soil.

“We each privation to combat cause cartels, that is clear. So what bash we person to do? We person to coordinate efforts and collaborate — them successful their territory and america successful our territory,” she said past month.

An unsolicited subject involution successful Mexico by the United States would nary uncertainty infuriate the Mexican authorities and spot an tremendous strain connected the bilateral relation. But, as Trump enactment it, “stranger things person happened.”

According to nationalist information world Víctor Hernández, “the United States authorities is preparing a low-scale subject involution successful Mexico, with peculiar forces and drone attacks.”

“Any subject cognition of this quality requires reconnaissance flights, similar those we are seeing,” he told El Universal.

Carlos Pérez Ricart, an world who specializes successful information issues and writer of the publication “One Hundred Years of Spies and Drugs: The History of US Anti-Narcotics Agents successful Mexico,” told the paper El País successful December that helium “would not beryllium amazed to aftermath up 1 time to an American rocket hitting a methamphetamine laboratory successful Badiraguato,” Sinaloa, the location municipality of imprisoned cause lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

“It could hap [but] determination is thing to suggest that a much aggressive, direct, and invasive argumentation volition pb to a alteration successful fentanyl trafficking to the United States,” helium said.

With reports from CNN and El Universal