CIA expands secret drones flights on Mexico

The United States has intensified secret flights of drones about Mexico to search for fentanyl laboratories, part of the most aggressive campaign of the Trump administration against drug cartels, according to US officials.

The undercover drones program, which has not been previously revealed, began under the Biden administration, according to US officials and others familiar with the program.

But President Trump and his director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, have repeatedly promised a more intense action against Mexican drug cartels. Increasing drone flights was a quick initial step.

The CIA has not been authorized to use drones to take lethal measures, officials said, he added that they do not imagine using drones to perform air attacks. For now, CIA officers in Mexico transmit information collected by drones to Mexican officials.

Flights are going well in Sovereign Mexico, “said an American official.

The Mexican government has taken measures to address the concerns of the Trump administration about fentanil, deploying 10,000 troops on the border this month to frustrate smuggling. But the Trump administration wants Mexico to do more to destroy or dismantle fentanyl laboratories and seize the drug.

Drones have proven to be experts in identifying laboratories, according to people with knowledge of the program. Fentanyl laboratories emit chemicals that make them easy to find in the air.

However, during the Biden administration, the Mexican government took to take measures against the laboratories identified by the Americans, although it did use the information to make arrests, according to two of the officials.

All officials spoke with the condition that their names are not used so that they could discuss a classified intelligence program and a sensitive diplomacy between Mexico and the United States.

Surveillance flights have already caused consternation in Mexico, which for a long time distrusting their northern neighbor after multiple US invasions and monitoring of land.

In addition to the efforts of the CIA, the North Command of the US Army. It is also expanding its border surveillance. But the US army, unlike the espionage agency, is not entering Mexican airspace.

Until now, the Northern command has made more than two dozen surveillance flights on the southern border using a variety of surveillance planes that include U-2, RC-135 riveted together, P-8s And drones, said a senior American military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational issues.

The army has also created a special intelligence work group of 140 analysts, located near the border, to analyze the information collected by surveillance flights and other sources, said the North Command in A statement This month.

Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, the head of the Northern Command, He told the Senate Last week, that analysts are providing intelligence that “obtains posters networks that drive the production and distribution of fentanil and push it through the border.”

In response to the legislators’ questions, General Guillot said that intelligence was shared with Mexican officials to help them “address poster violence in terms of sending more troops.” General Guillot said his command had increased the intelligence collection to make “rapid progress against this threat.”

When asked about the comments of General Guillot, President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said that Mexican sovereignty “was not negotiable, and we will always coordinate without subordinating.”

White House, CIA and Pentagon officials refused to comment on the Secret Intelligence program.

Trump signed a Executive order On January 20, he requested an offensive against the main posters. This week, your administration plans to designate Half dozen posters and criminal groups in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations.

The designation gives the United States Government broad powers to impose economic sanctions on groups and entities linked to them. But the posters are already under strong sanctions by the United States government, and a foreign terrorist designation would not provide new significant tools to block their financial maneuver, according to former US officials who have worked on these issues.

Although the sanctions are not necessary for the intensified intelligence collection by the CIA, several former officials said that the designation was an important symbolic step that, eventually, could be followed by expanded operations by military or intelligence agencies Americans.

The seventh group of the special forces of the US army began a training exercise in Mexico this month. Major Russell Gordon, spokesman for the first command of the Special Forces, said that training with Mexican marine infantry was planned and part of the “long defense cooperation of the United States-Mexico.”

Even so, former officials say they believe it is likely that the intelligence and intelligence agencies of the United States will increase training with Mexican authorities in the coming months.

Making an air attack in fentanyl laboratories would probably cause catastrophic deaths, since they are often inside households in urban areas, said a person familiar with the program, which probably contributes to the reluctance to authorize lethal force.

The possibility of violence also exists whether the Mexican army or police move against the laboratory.

But the purpose of providing intelligence to Mexican authorities is not to kill the poster members, but to disable laboratories, according to US officials informed about the program.

If cooperation and intelligence exchange do not lead to the destruction of laboratories, the Trump administration has indicated that it is considering alternative movements.

In a visit to the southwest border this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegesh did not rule out the realization of cross -border incursions to pursue posters within Mexico.

“All options are on the table,” Hegseth told journalists.

In the transition to the new Trump administration, a former high -ranking official of the United States said that the incoming attendees had made it clear that they planned to use the full apparatus of American anti -terrorism: surveillance and satellite aircraft, intelligence analysts, so As American staff or military contractors, Go after posters within Mexico.

Mrs. Sheinbaum, president of Mexico, has been roasted by journalists on expanded military flights at the border, after they were detected on January 31.

Last week, the Secretary of Defense of Mexico, General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, told journalists that the military had not received any request from the United States to fly in Mexican airspace and insisted that surveillance flights had not violated International law flying above international waters.

Days later, as more surveillance flights were detected along the border, Mrs. Sheinbaum said the flights were not new, which suggests that they took place under Mr. Biden, but did not explain. She said the flights were “part of the dialogue, the coordination, that we have.”

Trump has announced a former paramilitary officer of the CIA, Ronald Johnson, as his choice to serve as an ambassador to Mexico. The former officials said they believed that Mr. Johnson was used due to his experience working with the Espionage Agency and Military Special Operations Forces.

The president also announced this month that he would appoint Joe Kent, a former army beret officer and the CIA paramilitar officer, as director of the National Center for Contribution.

Mark Mazzetti Washington reports reported and Mega Emiliano Rodríguez from Mexico City.