The U.S. military has put a major dent in Mexican drug cartels’ drone operations near the southern border.
The military has been using lasers to shoot down the devices, which cartels use to gather intelligence to aid them in their smuggling efforts.
From The Hill:
The number of suspected cartel-linked drones in the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped by 75 percent since the U.S. military began using high-energy lasers, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources said.
Officials believe the military’s ability to shoot down these suspected unmanned aircraft directly correlates to the drop in the number of drones being spotted. However, they also acknowledge that the decrease in traffic could be linked to cartel operatives changing routes or using other tactics to accomplish the same goals of surveilling U.S. activity.
That total included 100 drones in August alone, as the military relies on counter-drone technology — including high-energy lasers — as part of its defense against these aircraft. Military officials have also confirmed the 75 percent drop in suspected cartel drone activity around the border.
“Frontline troops have the right authorities and are leveraging a highly capable network to thwart threats to the forces conducting the territorial integrity mission,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command (Norcom), said in a statement last week.
Before turning to the lasers as part of its counter-drone defense, military forces were largely using electronic warfare systems to jam up the drones reportedly being used by the cartels, officials said. The issue is once a drone operator can unjam the aircraft, it can return to full effectiveness.
However, the laser system is proving much more effective, as its beam can completely disable the aircraft, which removes it from the suspected cartel’s arsenal of devices being used against the U.S.
Operation Ardent Vanguard Update
— U.S. Northern Command (@USNorthernCmd) September 4, 2026
11 cartel drones defeated by the Army’s Multipurpose High Energy Laser as of Sep. 4. More than 300 defeats using kinetic and non-kinetic systems this year, with more than 100 occurring in August.
“JTF Southern Border’s combined arms approach… pic.twitter.com/KexEOvgM9D
Cartels employ cheap commercial drones to serve as their eyes in the sky, keeping track of police, move narcotics and human trafficking victims, and attack rivals without putting their men at risk.
“We see the drones every day. The cartels use the drones to identify where the authorities are and how they can manage entries,” Walter Slosar, then the appointed interim chief agent of the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, told Townhall.
Paddy Ginn, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told CNN, “In Mexico, cartels have been using drones for attacks for at least five or six years.” Ginn also said, “Criminal groups now use drones to monitor police patrols, drop improvised explosive devices on rivals or security forces, and support migrant-smuggling operations along the US border.”
David Mora, a senior Mexico analyst at Crisis Group, also told CNN, “There has certainly been an increase in Mexico. From small drones used for surveillance, which is highly effective for criminal groups, to larger and more sophisticated drones with greater payload capacity, to which explosives are attached.”
Pentagon officials said military forces working with U.S. Northern Command shot down 300 suspected cartel drones over the first eight months of 2026, including about 100 in August, according to NewsNation.