( NewsNation ) — A new federal government assessment is raising concerns the speed at which Mexican drug cartels are using advancing technology in their use of drones along the southern border .
The assessment, first reported by the Washington Post , warns that cartels have “alarming drone advances,” some of which are reportedly being collected by sending operatives to the Russia-Ukraine battlefield.
Once there, the assessment finds that cartel members are gaining real-world experience and are reportedly bringing those skills back to Mexico. The report indicated that the cartels have increased efforts to recruit people, mostly from Colombia, who have returned from Ukraine.
The cartels then send in their own operatives who closely study the use of alternating radio frequencies and other techniques to evade anti-drone jamming systems, the Post reported.
In addition, cartels are procuring advanced drone models that have the capability of remaining in the air longer and can carry more explosives than unmanned aircraft currently being used by the cartels.
A State Department spokesperson told NewsNation that the agency takes reports of transnational criminal organizations’ growing use of drone technology seriously and tracks the issue closely.
And government concerns extend beyond the cartels flying drones over the U.S.-Mexico border.
Video footage obtained by NewsNation from Mexican law enforcement shows cartel members dropping bombs from drones on rival cartel organizations. The source said that the bombs are often used as a way of intimidating other cartels.
U.S. officials have also been preparing for the possibility of drones carrying payloads — including weapons or explosives — as criminal organizations adapt technology that has transformed modern warfare overseas.
The State Department spokesperson told NewsNation it is working with U.S. law enforcement and Ukrainian counterparts to reduce the risk of battlefield skills making their way back to criminal organizations — while also applying lessons learned from Ukraine to the U.S. counter-drone effort.
The White House has also raised concerns cartels, as President Donald Trump this week referred to the transnational criminal organizations as the “ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.” The Trump administration has previously designated several Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
In an address to the United Nations, Trump said Mexico is the “epicenter of the cartel violence” and said, “Like ISIS, (cartel operatives) should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release.”
Customs and Border Protection officials told NewsNation that the federal agency detected more than 42,000 near-border drone flights in fiscal year 2025. CBP also said that detections in fiscal year 2026 have already surpassed that number.
CBP says cartels are using drones to watch U.S. law enforcement, move narcotics across the border and guide illegal immigrants.
NewsNation previously reported that the U.S. military has deployed high-energy laser technology to the Rio Grande Valley, where officials say 11 hostile, cartel-linked drones had been taken down as of Sept. 4.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military says the use of anti-drone technology is part of a much larger operation. The U.S. Northern Command has reported more than 300 drones have been taken out of the skies this year using both kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities — with more than 100 in August alone.
Military officials have said that the use of anti-drone technology, including high-energy lasers, has reduced cartel-linked drone traffic by 75% .
“Frontline troops have the right authorities and are leveraging a highly capable network to thwart threats to the forces conducting the territorial integrity mission,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, said in a recent statement
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