Mexico's Drone Wars: Cartels' High-Tech Terror Tactics

Inside the cartels’ tactical evolution: improvised bombs, chemical drones, Chinese jammers, and U.S. targets under watch.

Mexico's Drone Wars: Cartels' High-Tech Terror Tactics Inside the cartels’ tactical evolution: improvised bombs, chemical drones, Chinese jammers, and U.S. targets under watch.

By Sean Campbell | The Zero Lux

In the rugged highlands of Michoacán, a soft hum overhead no longer signals leisure or agriculture. For civilians, that sound has become synonymous with death. Mexican drug cartels have escalated from street warfare to aerial dominance, transforming off-the-shelf drones into weapons of terror and intelligence tools. What began as crude adaptations has evolved into a full-spectrum drone war that now stretches from mountaintop villages to U.S. military outposts along the southern border.

This is the new face of asymmetric warfare in North America: consumer drones weaponized by criminal empires, coordinated with commercial-grade jamming systems, digital espionage, and cross-border surveillance.

A Doctrine Emerges: From Surveillance to Shock and Awe

Around 2017, Mexico's most violent criminal organizations began using drones for battlefield awareness. By 2020, the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and factions of the Sinaloa cartel were deploying modified DJI drones to drop grenades and homemade bombs on rivals, police, and even civilians.

According to leaked documents from Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), cartel drone strikes jumped from five in 2020 to 260 by mid-2023. Many of these attacks were filmed and distributed online as psychological operations. In one 2024 incident, a funeral in Aguililla was interrupted by an explosive-laden drone; no fatalities, but the message was unmistakable: nowhere is safe.

These attacks are frequently carried out by specialized units like the so-called "Operadores Droneros," 12-man teams trained to pilot, film, and execute coordinated aerial assaults. They're equipped with first-person-view (FPV) systems, allowing real-time targeting from kilometers away.

"This isn't just terrorism; it's a doctrine," said one Mexican security analyst who asked not to be named. "These groups are building air power with a PlayStation budget."

Engineering Fear: Homemade IEDs and Modified Tech

The tools are disturbingly accessible. Most cartel drones are modified DJI Phantom or Mavic models. Firmware is altered to remove altitude restrictions and geofencing. Payloads vary: fragmentation grenades with 3D-printed release triggers, PVC-packed explosives, and soda cans filled with shrapnel and ammonium nitrate.

In recovered drones, Mexican military analysts have found GoPro mounts for propaganda filming, and GPS spoofers embedded alongside detonation circuitry. The drones are cheap, disposable, and increasingly deadly.

In one 2024 incident in Michoacán, CJNG allegedly deployed a drone to disperse chemical irritants over a contested village—marking one of the first documented uses of airborne chemical harassment in the conflict, according to InsightCrime.

"It's the perfect low-risk platform," said a U.S. border agent. "They can fly ten of them at a target and only need one to hit. And we can't always see them coming."

Digital Shadows: Cartels Tap Government Surveillance Tools

The cartel use of spyware doesn’t stop with Titan. Investigations by The Guardian and Citizen Lab have revealed that Pegasus, the powerful surveillance software developed by Israel’s NSO Group, has been deployed in Mexico against journalists, activists—and potentially cartel targets. In 2020, a DEA official described the situation bluntly: “It’s a free-for-all … the police who have the technology would just sell it to the cartels.”

Pegasus allows operators to fully infiltrate smartphones—accessing real-time location, messages, calls, microphones, and cameras without the user’s knowledge. While it was originally licensed for counterterrorism purposes, Pegasus was found in the devices of reporters and human rights defenders in Mexico, and digital forensics analysts fear that copies or derivative tools have filtered down into criminal networks through corrupt state actors.

The drone war doesn’t stop in the sky. Cartels have reportedly obtained access to Titan, a controversial Mexican digital surveillance platform originally designed for state security. As revealed by a 2023 VICE investigation, the software allows users to pull real-time location data and sensitive personal info.

Access has allegedly been sold on black markets for anywhere from $600 to $9,000. In effect, cartels are now able to conduct targeted killings or intimidation campaigns with the same surveillance software once used to monitor activists.

"Cartels no longer operate outside the system," said a digital forensics expert in Mexico City. "They're inside it, using government tools against civilians."

Jamming the Sky: From Homemade Disruptors to Military-Grade EW

To counter surveillance by police and military drones, some factions have developed or purchased jamming systems. In 2024, CJNG operatives were caught with a vehicle-based jammer system capable of disabling UAVs within a 1.5 km radius. The setup included six high-gain antennas and shielding built into the trunk.

But the arms race didn’t stop there. In 2025, Mexican special forces seized a full suite of SkyFend anti-drone systemsfrom a compound operated by La Mayiza, a powerful Sinaloa faction. The Chinese-made SkyFend Hunter, Spoofer, and Guider modules are military-grade systems capable of jamming, hijacking, or spoofing commercial drones.

Each unit retails for up to $100,000, a figure confirmed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which documented a member of the Mayito Flaco faction of the Sinaloa Cartel equipped with a SkyFend jammer during a 2025 operation. According to intelligence sources, SkyFend systems have been used by military forces in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East—and now, Mexican cartels.

"They’ve gone from garage builds to battlefield systems," said one U.S. defense contractor familiar with SkyFend’s capabilities. "It’s a complete shift in operational sophistication."

Global Inspiration: Learning from the Ukraine Drone Front

Experts in drone warfare and intelligence analysis have confirmed that Mexican cartels are closely watching the tactics employed in the Ukraine-Russia war, especially the widespread use of FPV kamikaze drones and loitering munitions. While there is no direct evidence of training or technology transfers, cartel engineers have increasingly adopted tactics pioneered on Eastern European battlefields.

"Cartels are watching drone tactics unfold in Ukraine in real time — and copying what works," said a U.S. counter-UAS researcher, quoted in a CSIS report on illicit drone innovation in Latin America. Open-source intelligence platforms, including encrypted Telegram channels, YouTube teardown videos, and battlefield footage have become informal classrooms for cartel operatives.

In one 2025 seizure in Michoacán, forensic analysts discovered an FPV drone outfitted with a custom circuit board and payload mount nearly identical to those seen in DIY loitering munitions deployed in Ukraine. These devices suggest not just tactical mimicry, but active engineering adaptation.

"We're seeing a global diffusion of asymmetric warfare tactics," said a researcher at Conflict Armament Research. "From Donbas to Michoacán, the tools and ideas are traveling faster than governments can react."

Spying on the United States: Border Surveillance Soars

In 2024, Border Patrol and National Guard units along the U.S.-Mexico border reported more than 60,000 drone incursions over a six-month period. Many of these flights occurred at low altitudes, often within 500 meters of U.S. territory.

Drone sightings in Laredo alone triggered the deployment of armored Stryker vehicles equipped with mobile radar systems. Drones have reportedly been used to map patrol patterns, monitor troop movement, and identify vulnerabilities in border security infrastructure.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called cartel drones the number one smuggling threat facing the state: "They’re the eyes and ears of a billion-dollar drug operation."

However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to these concerns by stating, “There’s no information that there are new drones at the border right now,” and criticized U.S. claims of cartel drone threats as politically motivated.

The incursions nonetheless prompted a push in Congress to criminalize the use of drones for trafficking, with new laws enabling law enforcement to shoot down cartel UAVs near sensitive zones.

U.S. Strategic Escalation: Drone Strikes on Cartels?

In early 2025, internal deliberations surfaced suggesting the U.S. government was considering drone strikes against Mexican cartels. According to six current and former U.S. military, law enforcement, and intelligence officials, the Trump administration was evaluating targeted strikes to disrupt drug operations and cartel leadership networks.

“No decision had been made,” one official told Reuters, “but the discussion was serious.”

However, legal authority remains a sticking point. Assistant Defense Secretary Colby Jenkins testified before the Senate that while terrorist designations might “help unlock the doors” to broader options, “special operations forces do not have the authority to launch drone attacks at drug cartels in Mexico” under current U.S. law.

President Claudia Sheinbaum and the Mexican government have firmly rejected any unilateral military intervention, calling such actions violations of sovereignty. Pentagon sources confirmed that surveillance operations near the border have increased, but no lethal drone missions have been authorized.

Terror from the Sky: Civilian Casualties and Forced Displacement

In conflict zones like Guerrero and Michoacán, drones are being used to terrorize entire communities. A 2023 attack on Nuevo Caracol displaced over 600 civilians when a cartel drone dropped explosives near the town center.

According to the independent outlet Animal Político, at least five civilians were killed in drone strikes between 2021 and 2024—with dozens more injured. In many cases, victims had no ties to rival cartels.

Ioan Grillo’s on-the-ground reporting further documents how villagers often shoot drones out of the sky, later recovering memory cards with video of their attackers—evidence of how cartels not only terrorize but document their dominance.

The drone campaigns mirror tactics seen in Ukraine and Syria: precision terror with low-cost platforms. Only in Mexico, there’s no air defense network to stop it.

A Hybrid Threat: Smuggling Meets Insurgency

This fusion of insurgent tactics, surveillance infrastructure, and military-grade EW places Mexican cartels in a new category: hybrid threat actors. They exploit supply chains, digital platforms, and asymmetric tactics to outmaneuver both Mexican and U.S. law enforcement.

The U.S. Army has responded by deploying radar systems like the AN/TPQ-53 along the border. But experts warn that without legislative updates to extend DHS’s counter-drone authority, the gap will only widen.

"Cartels are out-innovating law enforcement," said a former DHS official. "They’re fast, decentralized, and unbound by rules. That’s a hard opponent to counter."

Reporting Perspective: On the Record, Not in the Shadows

This investigation is grounded in firsthand sourcing, field observations, and technical documentation. These are not drug gangs in the traditional sense—they are parallel powers, adapting faster than bureaucracies can respond.

Whether through hacked surveillance software, drones dropping bombs, or Chinese jammers repurposed for mobile warfare, Mexico’s cartels have rewritten the rules of engagement—and redefined the modern battlefield.

At The Zero Lux, we see in total darkness.

Editor’s Note:
This article builds upon earlier reporting and has been expanded with new field research, technical analysis, and interviews to reflect the escalating reality of cartel drone warfare. From late 2023 to March 2024, the author lived in Ajo, Arizona—roughly 40 miles from the Lukeville border—covering the Tucson sector while living in a fifth-wheel trailer reporting on immigration, cartel violence, and meeting with sources on both sides of the border. At The Zero Lux, we don’t recycle press releases—we revisit the frontline, follow the trail, and report what others overlook.

we see in total darkness.