U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed in a statement to Breitbart Texas that federal agents detected more than 42,000 unmanned drone flights near the U.S.–Mexico border in fiscal year 2025, describing the counter-drone environment as "rapidly evolving" as cartel aerial operations expand in scope and sophistication.
CBP's FY25 figure follows separate congressional testimony from a senior Department of Homeland Security counter-drone official, reported by Fox News, indicating that cartels conducted approximately 60,000 drone flights in just six months — from July through December 2024 — averaging more than 300 flights per day south of the border, with federal agencies citing overlapping jurisdictional hurdles that complicate an effective response.
According to Breitbart, Federal reporting on cartel drone activity is not new. As far back as April 2021, reporting from Breitbart's Cartel Chronicles Project documented cartels in western Mexico weaponizing commercial drones using improvised explosive devices. That early warning went largely unaddressed at the national policy level for years.
Mexican authorities confirmed that two police officers in Michoacán were injured in a cartel drone attack in which commercial aircraft were used to drop explosives. The incident followed state police efforts to remove roadblocks that had been placed to restrict rival cartel movement of armored vehicles into contested areas. The use of weaponized drones against law enforcement in Mexico has been a documented and growing practice.
Supporters of stronger border enforcement contend that these documented incidents in Mexico represent a preview of what could eventually reach U.S. soil — and that the scale of drone surveillance activity already crossing into American airspace demands an urgent, unified federal response rather than the fragmented approach currently in place.
In October, authorities arrested a Gulf Cartel member operating in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, just south of the Texas border. The individual was found in possession of 151 drone explosives, 18 drones, three improvised explosive devices, other weapons, and anti-drone devices. The seizure illustrated the operational maturity of cartel drone programs.
Federal officials say cartels deploy drones to map Border Patrol movements in real time, identify enforcement gaps, direct smuggling teams, and coordinate the movement of people and contraband. The picture that emerges from both the seizure data and agency testimony is one of a well-resourced and organized aerial surveillance operation — not improvised hobbyist activity.
"The counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) environment is rapidly evolving, as are cartel tactics. In FY25, CBP detected over 42,000 near-border, unmanned drone flights. This highlights the magnitude of the problem, even if not every one of those threats was nefarious."
The threat moved from the border's edge into American civilian airspace when the FAA temporarily shut down airspace over El Paso following reports of a suspected cartel drone incursion. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that both the FAA and the Department of Defense responded quickly to address the situation. He later acknowledged that at least one object shot down in the process turned out to be a balloon.
That detail — a balloon misidentified during a counter-drone response — underscores how difficult real-time identification has become in a region saturated with drone activity. It is not a reason to dismiss the broader threat; it is a reason to invest more seriously in detection technology and clear operational authority. Border-region officials describe the current defensive posture as a patchwork. La Linea, the cartel faction described as the primary organization controlling territory south of El Paso, operates through a network of cells rather than a strict hierarchy. Both La Linea and the Sinaloa Cartel maintain smuggling corridors into Texas and New Mexico. Cartel Jalisco New Generation also has a presence in Ciudad Juárez through an alliance with La Línea.
At the start of President Donald Trump's administration, the U.S. Department of State designated six Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations — a significant and appropriate policy step. However, La Linea was not included in that initial group, despite its documented activity directly south of a major American city. Calls have emerged to add the faction and its affiliated cells to the list.
The legal and operational barriers facing federal counter-drone efforts are significant. FAA restrictions limit where counter-UAS systems can be deployed, while overlapping authority among DHS, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice creates response delays along a border where drone flights now number in the tens of thousands annually. The combined DHS and CBP figures — 60,000 flights in six months and more than 42,000 detected near-border detections in FY25 — tell a consistent story: cartel aerial surveillance is not a marginal or occasional phenomenon. It is a persistent, industrial-scale operation. Officials say the cartels' drone fleets are growing faster than the federal government's ability to counter them.
For conservatives who have long argued that border security requires both physical and technological investment, the drone figures are a confirmation rather than a surprise. Border-region law enforcement officials report that cartel drones operate nightly, often flying at altitudes that evade detection while tracking agent locations, patrol patterns, and response times below.
What is needed is a unified counter-UAS command structure with clear legal authority, dedicated funding, and interagency coordination that does not require bureaucratic negotiation before a drone can be addressed. The cartels are operating with nation-state-level surveillance tools. The federal response, by official accounts, remains fragmented. That gap is a policy choice — and one with direct consequences for border communities.