A senior Trump administration official said Tuesday that “it’s only a matter of time” before Mexican criminal organizations carry out drone attacks against U.S. citizens and law enforcement authorities.
Steven Willoughby, acting director of the Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program Management Office in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), made the assertion during an appearance before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
“Nearly every day, transnational criminal organizations use drones to convey illicit narcotics and contraband across U.S. borders and to conduct hostile surveillance of law enforcement,” he said.
“In the last six months of 2024, over 27,000 drones were detected within 500 meters of the U.S. southern border, operating nearly 60,000 unique flights, the majority of which were conducted at night or at restricted altitudes,” Willoughby said.
After highlighting that drones have increasingly been used around the world “to conduct kinetic attacks” and noting that “warring” cartels have used the unmanned aircraft to attack each other, the DHS official declared that “it’s only a matter of time before Americans or law enforcement are targeted in the border region [with Mexico].”
“In Ukraine and Russia, the extensive use of drones in the ongoing war has further demonstrated their lethality and versatility. … As my colleagues here can attest to, the threat of weaponized UAS [unmanned aircraft system] attacks is also a concern right here in the United States,” Willoughby said.
🚨Funcionarios de EU advierten que cárteles mexicanos podrían atacar con drones a sus fuerzas
👉🏼“Es cuestión de tiempo antes de que civiles o policías de EU sean blanco en la frontera”, alerta Steven Willoughby, jefe del programa anti-drones de la Oficina de Estrategia,… pic.twitter.com/9pPaYC3iSe
— Azucena Uresti (@azucenau) July 23, 2025
In written testimony submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on the judiciary, the official said that:
- Since 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and officers have seized thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl and other hard narcotics that drug traffickers have attempted to transport through thousands of cross-border drone flights.
- Since early August 2024, warring Sinaloa Cartel factions have increasingly attacked one another using drone-delivered improvised explosive devices.
- DHS’s authority to detect and counter drone threats will expire on September 30, 2025 — and we need urgent Congressional action to ensure the continued protection of our nation.
For his part, the head of the FBI’s anti-drones program told the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary that the United States is “doing things with the Mexican government [and] the Mexican armed forces” to combat the threat of drones in the border area.
“We’re sending people down there to train them on drone exploitation and the principles … of effective counter-UAS,” Michael Torphy said.
Drone exploitation is the use of drones for malicious and criminal purposes.
Torphy said that the United States is “delivering best practices” to Mexico “to keep them safer” and to “fight the war” against criminal organizations.
“But then we’re bringing back the things that they’re learning in their country because inevitably that will come into our country and we’ll be better prepared,” he said.
It was revealed earlier this year that the United States Central Intelligence Agency has flown drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels and hunt for fentanyl labs.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said in February that U.S. drone flights over Mexico only occur after the government of Mexico has requested them in order to obtain information to be able to respond to prevailing “security conditions.”
Sheinbaum: No reports of ‘new drones’ at the Mexico-US border
At her Wednesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum was asked whether the Mexican government has detected the illicit operation of drones near the Mexico-U.S. border and whether it is collaborating with the U.S. government to combat the unmanned aerial vehicles.
“At some point there was a drone that didn’t cross, let’s say, the border,” she said, adding that there is “permanent collaboration” between Mexico and the United States on security issues, especially at the border.
“There is no information of new drones that are at the border at this time,” Sheinbaum said.
“Remember that there is the [Northern] Border Operation with 10,000 National Guard troops,” she added.
Sheinbaum asserted that “there is nothing in particular” to be concerned about “at this moment,” offering a rebuttal to Willoughby’s assertion that a drone attack against U.S. citizens or law enforcement is “only a matter of time.”
There is “communication” and “collaboration” between Mexico and the United States, she stressed.
“There is no reason for additional concern,” Sheinbaum said.
For his part, Navy Minister Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles acknowledged that organized crime groups in Mexico have flown “commercial drones” for criminal purposes, but declared that “it hasn’t been detected that those types of drones are at the border.”
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
