Border agents look on as drug-laden drones cross into US

Border force agents are effectively powerless to stop more than "1,000 drug-laden" drones being flown over the US-Mexico border.

Staff patrolling the border can do little more than watch them fly over because they are under strict orders not to shoot them down , The Telegraph can reveal.

Cocaine, amphetamines and fentanyl are wrapped in plastic and bound to the tiny quadcopters, which fly over border defences to deposit their illegal cargo at a drop point.

Although the amount of drugs they can carry is relatively small – rarely more than 20lbs – each drone can whirr back and forth dozens of times a day.

The drugs are then collected and sold across the US.

Because US airspace is controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a regulatory agency without enforcement powers, border force cannot intervene.

The agents on the ground do not have jurisdiction when it comes to the skies , The Telegraph understands.

It is a legal loophole through which the Mexican cartels have flown vast quantities of drugs , and raked in millions of dollars.

Some 107,543 drug overdose deaths took place in the US last year, of which almost 75,000 were caused by fentanyl, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

The Mexican cartels are estimated to make between $19 billion and $29 billion every year in illegal drug sales in the US. Their illegal wares are also smuggled into the country through underground tunnels, shipping containers and drug mules.

Mark Morgan, the customs and border chief during Donald Trump's first stint in the White House, said the "bureaucratic and regulatory nightmare" was ruthlessly exploited by drug gangs.

He told The Telegraph: "So the FAA actually governs what domestic law enforcement agencies can do in the skies with respect to drones.

"And so it's been a contentious point, even when I was commissioner, about how we were restricted to do certain things, like... just knocking them out of the sky.

"You need to develop the protocols that give them not only the capability, but the authority to be able to stop and interdict the drones that are coming across the border unlawfully."

He added: "In my opinion, that should be taken out of the hands of the FAA. We are way behind getting the domestic law enforcement agencies on the border the authority to do what they need to do."

Falling behind Mr Morgan said he believed that powers needed to be transferred from the FAA to the border force, and said there were moves to do so during Mr Trump's first term that eventually became bogged down in the government machine.

"We are way behind getting the domestic law enforcement agencies on the border the authority to do what they need to do," he told The Telegraph.

It is not clear if Mr Trump has similar plans for his second term.

However, "narcodrones" continue to maintain their steady stream into the US, and their deadly payloads are mounting up.

The perception that law enforcement is essentially powerless when it comes to knocking these drones out of the sky has caused frustration among the rank-and-file, according to one former border agent.

The individual, who was briefed by superiors while stationed in Arizona's Tucson sector, said: "There had been reports about them.

"We were told, don't shoot at them, obviously, and try to keep an eye on it, call in its location, and if you're able to retrieve then do so.

"We all complained – we knew no one had any control over it."

In 2020, in Arizona's Yuma sector, authorities recovered 10 packages deposited by a drone.

When they slit open the tightly-wrapped yellow tape they found cocaine worth more than $300,000.

The following year in San Ysidro, California, the border force were alerted when a drone carrying two loads of cocaine bound in plastic wrap crash-landed on a roof.

Along with recovering the drugs, law enforcement were able to dig through flight logs to find where it was sent and where it was going.

But this represents just a tiny fraction of the illegal substances that flood across the US border and swell the coffers of the cartels' drug empires.

In March, General Gregory Guillot, head of United States Northern Command, told Congress that there were "probably more than a thousand" incursions by drones across the US-Mexican border every month.

"I don't know the actual number – I don't think anybody does," he added, calling the situation "alarming".

How many of those will be carrying drugs, and how many will be probing border defences for weaknesses to smuggle in migrants is unclear.

But Dr Robert Bunker, a national security expert, believes the true number of narcodrones could be even higher.

"If you had a drone that's running back and forth across the border... that sucker could go back and forth 30 times in a day easily," he said.

"So if you had 10 drones and you're running them 30 times each, it would add up very quickly in one day's time.

"I don't know if the 1,000 figure is just a guesstimate or what. But depending on how they're being utilised, you can have a lot more."

Legislation is out of date The Department for Homeland Security's powers are set out in a 2018 act, limiting agencies to intercepting the drones only if they pose a "credible threat" to a government facility.

Critics believe the legislation is already hopelessly out-of-date to catch up with the evolving threat.

It was scheduled to lapse in May but is still caught up in Washington's bureaucratic machine.

It will take a "blood on the pavement" situation before Congress finally catches up to the threat posed by drones, Dr Bunker believes.

Even if law enforcement were allowed to bring down the narcodrones, that is just half the battle.

Senior congressmen from both parties warned this year that the US was relying on "Cold War" technologies to police the skies – well behind what is needed to detect the tiny unmanned vehicles.

Dr Ghaleb Krame, a former law enforcement official in Mexico, compares the situation to another war: Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where drones have upended the established rules of warfare.

But while Russian and Ukrainian forces are flinging tens of thousands of drones at each other every month, he believes the Mexican cartels are getting the "upper hand" when it comes to the battle with the border force.

Their drones can avoid detection if they are flown at a low altitude, and they can be taken off the commercial frequency spectrum – meaning they cannot be brought down by being jammed.

In Tamaulipas, northeast Mexico, Dr Krame has even seen them used to blind security cameras. "They fly the drones exactly to the height of the cameras, and they spray black paint so obviously they cannot see anything," he said.

US Customs and Border Protection has been approached for comment.