Less than a month after President Trump signed an executive order declaring drug cartels as terrorist organizations, American spy planes are patrolling the border to find information on their leaders.
The US military has intensified its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels, conducting at least 18 spy plane missions over the southwestern border and the international waters off the Baja peninsula in just the last two weeks.
This surge contrasts sharply with the previous pace of roughly one mission per month. And it follows directives from Trump aimed at securing the border and curbing drug trafficking.
It marks a shift in priorities where the US military is moving assets from operations overseas to focus on the crisis at the border.
The exact use of the collected intelligence remains ambiguous, with options ranging from justifying further terrorist designations to coordinating with Mexico’s military to address the cartels.
Trump Administration Going After Drug Cartels
President Trump has already moved to classify drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, thereby heightening speculation about potential US military interventions in Mexico.
He has previously expressed interest in bombing fentanyl labs. These flights may be a precursor to further action.
“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” an executive order signed by the President on Inauguration Day reads.
“The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.”
During the 2024 campaign, President Trump told voters he would designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
They placed their trust in him to deliver, and tonight, he did.
PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT. pic.twitter.com/kXAaw4doLk
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 21, 2025
RELATED: Former AG Bill Barr Calls For Military Action Against Drug Cartels Inside Mexico’s Border
Bomb The Cartels?
President Trump reportedly inquired during his first term about secretly bombing illegal cartel drug labs and was widely ridiculed over the idea.
Now, that’s what America voted for – decisive action to stop the crisis. Nobody is laughing any longer.
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, in his memoir A Sacred Oath, indicated Trump, during his first term, was keenly focused on the constant flow of drugs across the southern border from the drug cartels.
“We could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,” Esper claimed Trump articulated. “No one would know it was us.”
Former Attorney General Bill Barr has actually conveyed similar sentiments.
Barr, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, compared the Mexican drug cartels to ISIS and advocated for the United States military to take them on within Mexico’s border.
Border Czar Tom Homan has said he expects military actions to ramp up regarding the drug cartels.
“I think the cartels would be foolish to take on the military, but we know they’ve taken on the Mexican military before, but now we have the United States military,” Homan told ABC News last week. “Do I expect violence to escalate? Absolutely, because the cartels are making record amounts of money.”
Conducting surveillance flights seems to indicate the operation will be ramping up fairly soon.
