Cops, cartels and the new drone wars on the border
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Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photo: David Swanson/Getty Images, Draganfly
On the U.S. side of the southern border, local law enforcement officials have begun using AI-programmed drones to locate drug traffickers and migrants.
- On the Mexico side, drug cartels are using their own drones to stake out desert areas in the U.S. to smuggle their products.
Why it matters: The U.S. government — whose own patrol drones help create what it calls a "virtual wall" — has long fueled the tech war along the border. But now even small local agencies are stepping into this arms race against cartels and illegal immigration.
The big picture: The drone wars are unfolding even as migrant traffic has dropped to its lowest levels in decades. They're being driven in part by staffing shortages in police and sheriff's departments, as well as cuts in federal aid that have limited traditional patrols.
- Local agencies in Arizona, for example, have begun using drones to investigate a range of headaches: illegal dumping, methamphetamine labs operating off isolated, rural roads, and rescuing migrants or hikers in the scorching desert.
- The number of U.S. law enforcement agencies using drones has jumped 150% since 2018, according to a report released this year.
- Most use them as "first responders" to emergencies to assess scenes.
Zoom in: The sheriff's office in Arizona's Cochise County — which shares 84 miles of its border with Mexico — recently announced it's launching a drone pilot program powered by Canadian drone-maker Draganfly, whose UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are used by groups in Ukraine to detect landmines.
- In the border city of Laredo, Texas, police said earlier this month they'll deploy BRINC Drones to help them respond to emergencies within seconds.
- Sunland Park, N.M., near El Paso, is already using drones to help its fire and police departments rescue stranded migrants and hikers on Mount Cristo Rey, and those struggling to cross the Rio Grande.
- The Texas National Guard and New Mexico State Police also are using drones.
How they work: Unlike commercial consumer drones, the high-tech police drones can fly for hours, collect data using AI, recreate crash scenes in minutes and direct deputies and officers to scenes using GPS.
- Cochise County's AI-enhanced quadcopters, for example, have thermal imaging for search-and-rescue and nighttime operations, and to locate potential cartel traffic in the border county's 6,200 square miles.
- Laredo's drones will be able to follow car chases, find out if a domestic violence suspect is armed before police arrive and even drop off Narcan to help someone counter an opioid overdose.
What they're saying: "Cochise County wanted surveillance tied to their AI system to understand what's happening in all those remote areas of the border," Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell told Axios.
- Chell said the county also wanted a drone that could provide close air support for their personnel, deliver equipment and help catch or locate suspects.
- "You can secure your border in a much more effective way than trying to rush a bunch of people around to spots where nobody's going to be anymore."
The intrigue: Some drones can monitor anything from ground-penetrating radar to air quality and can measure a person's heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and oxygen level from 500 meters away, Chell said.
State of play: The local drone race comes as suspected cartels in Mexico are flying thousands of drones over U.S. territory, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials say.
- Steven Willoughby, deputy director of DHS's counter-drone program, told a U.S. Senate committee last month that cartel drones made more than 27,000 flights within 500 meters of the southern border during the last six months of 2024.
- They're "flying between the hours of 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., when the cover of darkness can obscure illicit activity," Willoughby testified.
- He said the drones can fly for more than 45 minutes, reach more than 100 mph and carry more than 100 pounds.
Some drones operated by cartels have dropped explosives on rival factions in Mexico, Willoughby said, although no such actions have been reported on the U.S. side.
- So far, none of the drones used by local law enforcement have been reported to have "offense capabilities" such as the ability to fire bullets from the sky or even explosives like what the military uses.
- Some civil liberties advocates are urging communities to hold off on allowing police to use drones until laws governing their use are adopted.
