Bomb-laden drones are latest weapon in Mexico’s drug war
MEXICO’S fastest growing drug cartel has developed drones laden with C4 explosives in the latest sign that the country is losing control of an escalating cartel warfare.
Fears are growing that Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) is morphing into narco terrorism as Mexico deals with a bloody battle for territory and drug supply routes into the US. Mexico’s General Attorney’s Office reported finding drones and the components needed to weaponise them during a search-and-seizure raid, and is pursuing terrorism charges against the CJNG.
The group split from the Sinaloa Cartel, run by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – now a prisoner in the US – in around 2010. It has now expanded its territorial control over nearly the entire country in an escalating wave of violence with rival organisations.
National security expert Fabián R. Gómez said: “We might be looking at a group that could be expanding from drug-trafficking related activities into narcoterrorism to retain their power.”
While Mexico and the United States have arrested and extradited hundreds of cartel members and leaders, over the years the strategy has only caused cartels to fragment and regroup in new, often more violent, organisations.
El Chapo, who infamously broke out of prison twice, yesterday appealed against his life sentence handed down a year ago by a US court for trafficking hundreds of tons of narcotics.
The end of El Chapo did not spell the end of cartel violence in Mexico. Rival CJNG has arguably become the most powerful cartel. The drones follow other innovations such as manned planes to attack rivals and submarines to smuggle drugs, in very public and brazen displays of power. On a recent widely shared video, dozens of armed men in military fatigues with a convoy of armoured vehicles, looking more like a professional military, pledged their allegiance to the cartel’s leader.
The video was released three weeks after a failed assassination attempt against Mexico City’s police chief (who attributed the attack to CJNG) and while President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was visiting Jalisco.
When asked about the video, he insisted on keeping up with his “hugs, not bullets” strategy against organised crime. AMLO has mostly moved away from the failed strategy of capturing cartel bosses, and claims poverty is driving organised crime.
He has promised economic prosperity and ending corruption, but Mexico’s economy is predicted to shrink more than nine per cent.
There has been some success. The Financial Intelligence Unit froze nearly 2000 of CJNG’s bank accounts. Yet 2020 is en route to becoming Mexico’s bloodiest year on record.