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Caribbean-Latin America
CIA flying spy drones ''well into Mexico'' as part of Trump crackdown on deadly drug cartels
2025-02-19
See also here.
[NYPOST] The CIA has sent drones on secret missions over Mexico to spy on narco mobs — and may use them for armed strikes, according to former and current officials.
Some secret — unless they want the cartels to know they’re being hunted.
The covert missions, carried out with MQ-9 Reaper drones, are sizing up the narco gangs and their laboratories over the southern US border as a possible precursor to trying to eliminate them by air, sources told CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
The drone flights, which were begun under the Biden administration but previously unreported, go ''well into sovereign Mexico,'' a US official told the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
’'Countering narco mobs in Mexico and regionally is a priority for the CIA as a part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to end the grave threat from narco-trafficking,'' a CIA rep said, according to CNN. ''Director [John] Ratcliffe is determined to put the CIA's unique expertise to work against this multi-faceted challenge.''
Courtesy of Skidmark, Fox News adds:
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been conducting surveillance flights with drones over Mexico in partnership with the U.S. neighbor to the south, to gather intelligence on cartels and fentanyl laboratories, according to a senior U.S. official.

The Biden administration authorized the use of MQ9 Reaper drones, which the official said are not armed and "not lethal," over Mexico to focus on locating fentanyl labs and cartels.

President Donald Trump’s administration continued the program, which is being done in coordination with the Mexican government.

The intelligence is shared with the Mexican government, which in turn has the authority to act on shutting down any illegal activities associated with the cartels and labs.

"This is not the Pakistan model," a senior U.S. official told Fox News. "It is being done in partnership with the Mexican government."
Related:
Mexico: 2025-02-18 US Special Forces Deploy To Mexico For
Mexico: 2025-02-18 Mexico To Sue Google If It Insists On Using ''Gulf Of America''
Mexico: 2025-02-17 Trump's designation of cartels as terrorists ends the fiction that Mexico is a trustworthy ally
Posted by:Fred

#12  Come on Franklin, its a non-serious position to pretend that convenience doesn't feed into addiction.
Posted by: Crusader   2025-02-19 22:59  

#11  See it in the headlines
You hear it every day
They say they're gonna stop it
But it doesn't go away

They move it through Miami
Sell it in L.A
They hide it up in Telluride
I mean it's here to stay
It's propping up the governments
Of Columbia and Peru
You ask any DEA man
He'll say there's nothing we can do

From the office of the President
Right down
To me and you
Me and you

It's a losing proposition
But one you can't refuse
It's the politics of contraband
It's the smuggler's blues

I still like Smuggler's Blues by Glenn Frey, 1985
Posted by: Bobby   2025-02-19 18:44  

#10  The most powerful country in the world can't defend its own borders, can't stop a handful of Third World narco-terrorists, right? Is Franklin Throckmorton with the CCP? Or is he getting a piece of the action?
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2025-02-19 15:02  

#9  That's the spirit, Franklin. Sit back and do nothing because nothing can be done, right? Let the Chinese and Mexicans flood our streets with fentanyl and wring our hands while Americans drop dead right and left. Let the death merchants get rich. We're helpless and hopeless. We might as well all shoot ourselves and get it over with. Do I need a /sarc tag?
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2025-02-19 14:59  

#8  #6 one way to know the players is to feed info to 'Mexican officials' and see if they intended target takes any actions, thus identifying the specific leak. Keeping the campaign chaotic, so the Mexican side doesn't know for sure what is good info and what is bait.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2025-02-19 07:53  

#7   Mexican drug cartels are practically the same as the Mexican government at this point.
Posted by: q   2025-02-19 05:34  

#6  The intelligence is shared with the Mexican government, which in turn has the authority to act on shutting down any illegal activities associated with the cartels and labs.

A criminal partnership on both ends.
Posted by: Besoeker   2025-02-19 03:26  

#5  All true. But at least lot of vicious suppliers won’t get to enjoy the outcome. Which includes China.
Posted by: trailing wife   2025-02-19 02:51  

#4  And,, of course , as long as there is DEMAND for a thing,
there will be a SUPPLY for that thing, supplied by somebody -- either legally, or illegally, or quasi-legally, whatever.



Posted by: Franklin T. Throckmorton   2025-02-19 02:46  

#3  The US will continue to have drug addiction problems as long as the US has drug addicts -- who, by definition, continue to use drugs despite negative consequences.

Mexico could disappear tomorrow ---> The US would still have the exact same drug addiction problems.

China could disappear tomorrow ---> The US would still have the exact same drug addiction problems.

Afghanistan could disappear this afternoon ---> The addicts in the US would just find an alternative supply.

Posted by: Franklin T. Throckmorton   2025-02-19 02:37  

#2  RFKJr apparently no longer abuses opiates.
Not because his supply was cut off.
Not because opiates are no longer available to him.
Posted by: Franklin T. Throckmorton   2025-02-19 02:27  

#1  As long as Americans want drugs,
Americans will have drug problems;
and American cities/towns will have drug problems;
and American families will have drug problems;
and American employers will have drug problems.
Posted by: Franklin T. Throckmorton   2025-02-19 02:22  

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