SUPRISE it’s the CIA!
The CIA has sent drones on secret missions over Mexico to spy on drug cartels — and may use them for armed strikes, according to former and current officials.
The covert missions, carried out with MQ-9 Reaper drones, are sizing up the drug gangs and their laboratories over the southern US border as a possible precursor to trying to eliminate them by air, sources told CNN.
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.
“Countering drug cartels 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.”
The drones flying into Mexico are currently unarmed but can be easily adapted to fit payloads and carry out precision strikes on targets, as regularly used by the US in conflicts in Iraq, Somalia, and Syria, CNN said.