The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has recently been flying drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels and hunt for fentanyl labs, CNN and The New York Times reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials familiar with the missions, CNN reported that the CIA has covertly flown MQ-9 Reaper drones<\/a> over Mexico to spy on cartels since U.S. President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also citing unnamed U.S. officials, The New York Times said that the Trump administration \u201chas stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Times said that the covert drone program began during Joe Biden\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citing one of its sources, CNN said that the recent drone flights in Mexico \u201cwere communicated to Congress by the Trump administration using a particular notification reserved for new or updated covert programs that the CIA intends either to conceal or deny\u2026 suggesting that the flights represent a distinct escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CNN said that the drones used for the missions in Mexico are not currently armed, but noted that \u201cthey can be equipped with payloads to carry out precision strikes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe U.S. regularly uses them to target suspected terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Somalia,\u201d the news organization added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Officials who spoke with the NYT said the CIA has not been authorized to use the drones to take lethal action in Mexico. The Times\u2019 sources said they do not see the drones being used to carry out airstrikes against cartel targets in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cConducting an airstrike on fentanyl labs would probably cause catastrophic fatalities, as they are often inside homes in urban areas, a person familiar with the program said, most likely contributing to the reluctance to authorize lethal force,\u201d the Times said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NYT said that \u201cfor now, CIA officers in Mexico pass information collected by the drones to Mexican officials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For its part, CNN reported that \u201csome current and former officials say designating cartels as terrorist groups could potentially lay the groundwork for direct U.S. strikes against the cartels and their drug labs in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration\u2019s designation of six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations is \u201cimminent,\u201d<\/a> the NYT reported last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reports on the drone missions come 8 days after CNN reported that the U.S. military had \u201csignificantly increased its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels over the past two weeks, with sophisticated spy planes flying at least 18 missions over the southwestern U.S. and in international airspace around the Baja peninsula.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the U.S. spy planes didn\u2019t enter Mexican airspace, the drone flights go \u201cwell into sovereign Mexico,\u201d one U.S. official told the NYT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CNN also reported that the MQ-9 Reapers \u201care being flown inside Mexican airspace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Times said that the drones have proved to be \u201cadept\u201d at identifying clandestine drug labs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFentanyl labs emit chemicals that make them easy to find from the air,\u201d the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the CIA is providing information from the drone missions to the Mexican government, local security forces could subsequently shut down the drug labs they detect. Security Minister Omar Garc\u00eda Harfuch said last Friday<\/a> that the Mexican Army and Navy had dismantled six clandestine drug labs in the northern state of Sinaloa, but gave no indication that authorities had first received intelligence from the United States. The synthetic drug labs dismantled by the navy were located thanks to \u201cnaval intelligence,\u201d Garc\u00eda said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At her Tuesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum gave a somewhat cryptic one-sentence response when asked about the reported CIA drone flights over Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s also part of this campa\u00f1ita [little campaign],\u201d she said<\/a> without elaborating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The implication was that the president places little faith in the reporting on U.S. drone missions over Mexico, although she didn\u2019t reject it outright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sheinbaum has repeatedly stressed that Mexico is willing to collaborate on security issues with the United States, but will never accept subordination or violations of its sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month, Trump agreed to postpone his planned 25% tariffs on all Mexican exports<\/a> to the United States after Sheinbaum committed to deploying 10,000 National Guard troops to Mexico\u2019s northern border to stem the flow of narcotics and migrants to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. president is particularly determined to stop the entry of fentanyl to the United States, where the synthetic opioid has fueled an overdose crisis. After signing an executive order on Jan. 20<\/a> that laid the groundwork for the designation of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, Trump was asked whether he would consider \u201cordering U.S. special forces into Mexico\u201d to \u201ctake out\u201d cartels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCould happen. Stranger things have happened,\u201d said the president, who last year indicated he was open to using military \u201cstrikes\u201d against Mexican cartels<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citing \u201cpeople familiar with the matter,\u201d The Washington Post reported Monday that the CIA \u201cis poised to take a larger, more aggressive role under President Donald Trump in the battle against Mexican-based drug cartels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That larger role, the Post said, includes \u201cdevising and evaluating <\/strong>plans to share more intelligence with regional governments, train local counternarcotics units and possibly conduct other covert actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cexpanded focus on cartels \u2026 represents a new and potentially risky priority for the spy agency,\u201d the newspaper said, adding that \u201cCIA Director John Ratcliffe intends to shift agency resources to its counternarcotics mission and apply insights from its two decades of tracking, infiltrating and disrupting terrorist networks to fighting the cartels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citing people familiar with the CIA\u2019s \u201cemerging plan,\u201d The Washington Post said that the emphasis will be on increased U.S. support to anti-drug forces within Mexico and elsewhere in the hemisphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2026 Less clear is whether armed U.S. personnel, either from the military\u2019s Special Operations forces or the CIA, could be tasked with taking direct action against cartel leaders on Mexican soil, something former intelligence and military officials warn would spark a ferocious backlash and harm U.S.-Mexican relations, including counternarcotics cooperation,\u201d the Post said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The El Universal newspaper reported Tuesday that it was told by a U.S. Department of Justice source that there are six different actions the U.S. government is taking or could take against Mexican drug cartels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The six actions mentioned by the unnamed Department of Justice source were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe United States could employ different operational strategies in Mexican territory to locate and neutralize drug cartel leaders, using similar methods to those employed in other parts of the world such as the Middle East, Afghanistan, Central America and South America,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n\n\n\nReport: CIA to take larger role in fight against Mexican cartels <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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