(RightWing.org) – Drug cartels have used hi-tech devices for years to enhance their territorial command structures, push back against law enforcement activities, and evade arrest. For instance, Mexican Federal Police officials arrested four members of a drug gang transporting a 3DR Solo Quadcopter drone armed with an improvised explosive device in October 2017. However, a new report indicates that drug lords recently created a unit dedicated to operating those deadly devices.
On August 22, The Daily Beast published a report detailing the recent formation of an “elite unit of drone operators” headed by the ruthless Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación or CJNG). A group of Mexican law enforcement officials and US-based security analysts confirmed the latest development in the ongoing battle between the CJNG and rival groups.
Those unnamed individuals told The Daily Beast that the CJNG assigned highly trained assassins known as sicarios to head up those units. They are reportedly tweaking civilian drones and turning them into aerial bombs to use against Mexican authorities and rival drug cartels.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of the deadly Operadores Droneras (Drone Operators or ODs), confirmed that the group started training in 2021. But, the unit didn’t start operations until earlier this year.
The source said the ODs targeted rival drug groups like the Jalisco-based Sinaloa Cartel, the Knights Templar and Los Viagras criminal groups operating in Michoacán. Conspicuously, the OD member didn’t list the Los Zetas, arguably one of Mexico’s largest and most deadly groups located across the Texas border in Nuevo Laredo.
He said once the ODs confirm a rival’s location, they target them for assassination with a drone. The source said they could be miles away, but once they get a lock on a “certain house or vehicle,” they send a drone loaded with explosives to “crash” into it.
An intelligence officer from the Mexican Army warned that although the ODs were a new group, that didn’t mean the unit was harmless. The anonymous source said the newly formed group had amassed “enough power” to warrant the ongoing attention of authorities.
Copyright 2023, RightWing.org
