The Mexican army has confirmed that drug cartel-operated bomb-dropping drones have killed soldiers in the western state of Michoacan. Defense Secretary Gen. Luis Cresencio Sandoval did not provide exact figures on the number of casualties suffered in the attacks. Sandoval stated that attacks targeted patrol units and included over 260 drone-bomb incidents in 2023 alone. He mentioned that personnel have suffered wounds, and some troops have died in the attacks.
The Jalisco cartel, known for equipping drones with metal bomb casings, has turned the region into a warzone with IEDs, trenches, and armored vehicles. The army continues to encounter more road-side bombs than drone-dropped ones. The only other reported cartel bomb attacks took place back in August 2023.
The defense department is now adding anti-drone systems to combat these threats. Mexico’s Navy also acknowledged that two military helicopter crew members died earlier this year when their chopper went down in the Pacific Ocean while chasing cocaine-smuggling boats. The U.S. Navy has agreed to help in recovering the sunken helicopter and the crew members’ remains.
The Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels have flooded major U.S. cities with meth and fentanyl and use violence to protect their turf, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The cartels have caused the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. In late April, 12 traffickers tied to the Jalisco cartel were sentenced to federal prison after being busted for coordinating a shipment of nearly 200 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine worth $9.9 million in Del Rio, Texas, in 2021.
Former President Trump mentioned that strikes against Mexican drug cartels are still on the table as fentanyl and overdose deaths continue to plague the United States.
