- President Donald Trump’s administration is considering using drone strikes against cartels on Mexican soil, sources tell NBC News. Doing so without Mexican knowledge, they say, would be a “last resort.”
- Trump has continued to explore new ways to slow the flow of fentanyl coming over the southern border, including threatening Mexico with tariffs.
- An intelligence officer told Straight Arrow News that the tactic might not be worth it due to the cartels’ ability to rebuild operations after a strike.
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Sources close to President Donald Trump say the administration is considering using drone strikes against Mexican cartels.
Six anonymous “current and former U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence officials” close to Trump told NBC News that the potential action is on the table. But, doing so without the knowledge of the Mexican government is looked at as a “last resort” in the fight to stem the flow of narcotics over the southern border.
The officials said the administration hasn’t come to a final decision.
Labeling cartels as ‘foreign terrorist organizations’
The operations stem from one of Trump’s first orders calling for the State Department to label Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). The order noted the rise in opioid and fentanyl-related deaths largely attributed to the cartels’ smuggling operations.
The State Department later applied the label to eight Mexican criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel and others, after the department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism showed that the groups were engaging in terrorist activities.
Surveillance drones
Federal officials confirmed to the New York Times that they had begun secretly flying drones over Mexican territories to keep a closer watch on cartel activity.
The program, started under former President Joe Biden, was a covert operation run by the CIA. Any intel gathered from those flights was passed on to the Mexican government. U.S. officials told the New York Times that the drones were able to identify fentanyl manufacturing sites based on the chemicals being released into the air.
Is it worth it?
Straight Arrow News spoke with Jon Molik, an active-duty U.S. intelligence officer, about the scenario of drone strikes on cartel sites shortly after the FTO designation was announced.
He told SAN reporter Ryan Robertson that the tactic might not be worth the cost.
“Conducting targeted strikes against drug labs operated by one cartel would likely be as effective as going after IED locations in Afghanistan,” Molik told the Weapons and Warfare host. “It would have an immediate impact, but then someone would build a new drug house elsewhere. The United States might not be interested in a whack-a-mole game with all these MQ-9s in their kinetic capacity. It costs a lot of money, and its effectiveness is questionable.”
