Game of Drones: Mexico’s Drug Cartels Have a Deadly New Weapon Jeremy Kryt - The Daily Beast
go to original November 13, 2017

A squad of Federales pulled over the stolen SUV just after dawn last month, along Highway 43D near the town of Salamanca in Mexico’s central Guanajuato state. What began as a high-risk felony stop took an even darker turn when officers ordered the four passengers out and began to search the vehicle.

The aerial drone in the rear cargo bay was armed and ready to be deployed. Sitting in an open plastic case beside an AK47 assault rifle and spare clips. The 3DR Solo Quadcopter carried a shrapnel-filled IED that was in turn rigged to detonate by remote control.

It was the first time a weaponized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) had been found in the hands of an organized crime group in Mexico.

“[Such] explosives and weapons are for the exclusive use of the Army,” said State Attorney Carlos Zamarripa in a statement that characterized the drone’s payload as a “large explosive charge.”

The weapon could have been used effectively against authorities, criminal rivals, or to terrorize innocent civilians, according to a report by security analyst Robert Bunker, a professor in Strategic Studies at the U.S. Army War college.

While contraband-laden drones operated by Mexican cartels have frequently penetrated U.S. airspace, none of them have been armed - yet. But the drone’s discovery comes at a time of widespread escalation of crime-related violence in Mexico, and could be a sign of things to come.

The finding of an armed UAV “represents a clear firebreak for the Mexican cartels,” Bunker told The Daily Beast.

Read the rest at The Daily Beast

Related: Mexican Authorities Seize Drug Cannon in Border State of Sonora (Associated Press)

Photo Illustration: Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

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