A few years ago, it was surprising to learn that drug traffickers were using drones to move small illicit loads. But now, fully into 2025, the scenario has taken a disturbing turn. Today, drones are weapons of war: they carry improvised explosives and spread terror from the sky. The victims are no longer only rivals or police authorities, but also the civilian population. What is known about this new tool of organised crime in Mexico?

Along with countries in a state of war, such as Ukraine and Syria, Mexico is also part of the list of territories with drone-dropped explosive attacks. And the number of aggressions and deaths they cause is clearly on the rise.

The Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) has acknowledged the deaths of 16 soldiers in 2022 and 42 during the first seven months of 2023. In turn, between 2012 and 2014, in the United States 150 drones were detected crossing the border into Mexico loaded with drugs, while since 2022 to date the U.S. border patrol has recorded the flight of some 155,000 drones used by the organised crime at the border.

In Mexico, it only takes a few clicks on Amazon to purchase a drone, with no regulation limiting its sale or acquisition. In addition, they have a derisory cost for organisations that spend billions of dollars on weapons. Thanks to the specimens confiscated in Sedena operations, it is known that some groups use basic models, of approximately 700 dollars. But cartels with greater financial capacity, such as Jalisco New Generation, use high-end agricultural drones, originally designed for fumigation.

Another advantage of these unmanned aircraft is that no sophisticated training is required to operate them.

Everything points to the fact that drones today have a more important role in surveillance and attack tasks than in the transport of narcotics. They have been used to launch chemical explosive devices, such as in April 2024, in Michoacán, which caused a stinging and suffocating sensation among the civilian population. Initially they were used only against rival groups, but over time they have begun to affect civilian infrastructure: houses, schools, temples, etc. However, several journalistic and academic investigations suggest that the cartels do not only use drones to attack; they are also effective espionage tools. A drone can accurately identify the license plate of a moving vehicle, detect the body heat of a person hidden in the trees and intercept private communications, all without putting the operator at risk.

In the face of this growing threat – which includes direct aggressions against its personnel – Sedena has intensified the acquisition and deployment of unmanned systems, designed not only for surveillance and reconnaissance tasks, but also to inhibit enemy drones. In addition, Sedena is working with the Aeronautical University in Querétaro on the development of the first 100% Mexican drone, aimed at surveillance and crime-fighting tasks.

At the regional level, the government of Michoacán has implemented a portable anti-drone system that combines a detection radar with a jamming cannon, capable of shooting down drones at a distance of up to 1.5 kilometres.

The CIA has operated a drone programme in Mexico for more than two decades, using mostly MQ-9 Reaper aircraft – commonly used in counter-terrorism operations – to monitor drug trafficking leaders at the request of the Mexican government.

In May of this year, the Mexican Senate urgently requested an amendment to the Civil Aviation Law to regulate the use of unmanned aircraft. The proposal seeks to establish controls over points of sale and require a registry of those who import, market and own drones, in order to be able to trace their final destination and prevent them from ending up in the hands of organised crime.

The request comes in a context in which organised crime has already appropriated technological tools to enhance its violent capacity, and armed drones have already claimed lives.

In the meantime, Mexico must deal with this new type of violence: one that falls from the sky, without warning and without clear consequences for those responsible.

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