(NewsNation) — Mexican drug cartels operating along the U.S.-Mexico border are using electronic devices to disrupt drones being used by U.S. border officials to track immigrants who crossed into the United States illegally, NewsNation has learned.
Members of Cartel del Noreste are using the disruptors to interfere with efforts to secure the southern border. An alert, sent out borderwide by U.S. Border Patrol officials and obtained by NewsNation, indicates that the transnational criminal organization is using the devices to counter American drones being used along the border.
Border officials say that the devices being used by the cartel can detect nearby unmanned aircraft systems. The devices can intercept the signal between the drone and its operator. According to the alert, the loss of signal will result in aircraft failure and will cause the drone to crash.
The drone jammers being used by the cartel send strong signals to the same frequencies as those being used by drone operators. That, in turn, drowns out the communications between the drone operator and the aircraft they are controlling. The loss in communication causes the drone to either run out of control or lose all functionality.
The jammers can be stationary devices or can be mounted or be built into gunlike devices, border officials warn. They can also radiate their signal in a cone shape or 360 degrees. Border officials say that the most effective devices being used by the cartels can be used effectively from about a mile away and become more effective the farther away the drone operator’s remote becomes from the aircraft.
Brandon Judd, the president of the Border Patrol Union, called the alert a “knee-jerk reaction” to something that the agency should have already been monitoring.
“Here we have a bulletin that goes out that says, be careful,” Judd told NewsNation. “Well, they should be careful anyway.”
Drones are used by various U.S. law enforcement agencies, including the Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety and others. However, those devices are being used strictly for surveillance purposes. Once in the air, the drones can detect where immigrants who have crossed the border illegally along with smugglers are located.
The cartels can use drone jammers to disrupt those aircraft, which demonstrates to Judd that the cartels are using better technology than U.S. officials because they do not have to adhere to budget restrictions.