The Trump administration has increased the use of drones to hunt for Mexican fentanyl labs, according to a report.
U.S. officials told The New York Times that the drones are part of a CIA covert program begun during the Biden administration. The program had not been disclosed before Tuesday.
The drones currently are being used to locate and surveil. The CIA has not been authorized to use the aerial objects to conduct strikes, officials told the Times.
The outlet added that agency officers are informing Mexican officials about what the drones have found.
The flights go "well into sovereign Mexico," one U.S. official told the outlet.
With fentanyl labs emitting chemicals, drones have "proved adept at identifying labs," the Times reported.
The hope is that the intelligence will lead to Mexican authorities disabling the labs, not killing the cartel members, as that likely would lead to increased violence in the country.
U.S. officials said that under President Joe Biden, Mexican authorities were slow to take action against labs identified by the U.S., though they did use information to make arrests.
The U.S. military's Northern Command also has expanded its border surveillance but is not entering Mexican airspace, the Times reported.
President Donald Trump campaigned on making national security and the southern border his top priorities. A migrant crisis that exploded under Biden also saw an increase of Mexican cartels transporting fentanyl into the U.S.
Last week, CNN reported the American military had ramped up its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels, flying at least 18 missions over the southwestern U.S. and the Baja peninsula.
Current and former military officials told CNN that the missions, which took place over a 10-day period from late January to early February, are a considerable increase in activity, coming as Trump deployed the military to the U.S.-Mexico border to halt the flow of drugs and foreign nationals into the country.
The Mexican government also deployed 10,000 troops to the border this month to thwart smuggling.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order calling for a crackdown on major cartels. This week, the administration plans to designate a half-dozen cartels and criminal groups in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations, the Times reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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