US MQ-9 Drone Just Flew a Mission Deep into Mexico

An MQ-9 Guardian medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) drone operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) flew deep into Mexico last week, according to flight tracking data. What at least appears publicly to be a very rare event comes as the Trump administration has reportedly authorized the military to take action against cartels in Mexico.

The drone, using the call sign TROY701, took off from San Angelo, Texas, at about 4 a.m. Eastern Time and flew more than 800 miles south, including about 600 miles deep into Mexican airspace, according to data provided by FlightRadar24 and shared on X by our friend @thenewarea51.

https://x.com/thenewarea51/status/1955622044521185577

The drone was operating at the behest of the Mexican government, according to the head of that nation’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch.

However, it is unclear at the moment why the MQ-9 had taken this unusual flight path or where it went after going dark. CBP drone operators are fully aware that they can be tracked online with ease when broadcasting with their transponders. The area they circled over may have been part of an active collection area or it may not have been, with the aircraft moving to more sensitive locales after it stopped transmitting. We have reached out to CBP and the White House for more details and will update this story with any pertinent information provided.

While we don’t know the flight’s objective, those tracking cartels note that the area where the drone did its orbits is the territory of the notorious La Nueva Familia Michoacana (LNFM) cartel.

The organization was sanctioned by the U.S. under a 2021 Biden executive order for illegally delivering large amounts of Fentanyl and synthetic opioids north of the border, “causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans annually.” In April, two of its leaders were indicted on trafficking charges. Siblings Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga — also known as El Pez, Pescado, and Mojarra — and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga — also known as El Fresa, El Feyo, and La Fruta — are both fugitives. There is a $5 million bounty for the arrest of El Pez and a $3 million bounty for the arrest of his brother.

The cartel trackers suggested that the MQ-9 flight could be related to LNFM.

“Based on geolocation work we have done utilizing open source materials, this territory has a heavy LNFM presence and the drone would most likely be looking at high value targets or areas of interest associated with that particular narcoterrorist organization,”

a spokesman for a team of open source analysts with a focus on cartels & other non-state actors under the X handle @natsecboogie told us on Wednesday.

https://x.com/Borrowed7Time/status/1955628705906376765

The exact target is “really hard to tell, but likely someone high up there in either cartel leadership – LNFM more likely – or someone on the most wanted list,” explained Stefano Ritondale, chief intelligence officer for Artorias, an AI-driven intelligence company specializing in cartel violence in Mexico, Latin American affairs, and drug trade/organized crime.

Once again, we have no real idea what it was collecting or even if it was collecting when it was flying circles with its transponder on near Mexico City. Given that the Guardians can stay aloft for nearly a day and half, it’s just as likely it was holding in that area before shutting off its transponder and heading to its sensitive collection area or areas. It’s also possible it was staging to support a larger multi-national, multi-agency operation and flew that area at a certain time.

Source: The War Zone