Border Agent Describes How Cartels are Using Drones; Cartels Using Drones to Track Border Officials, Authorities Tell Congress; 10,000 Cartel Drones Detected Crossing U.S. Border Last Year

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Border agent describes how cartels are using drones:

Cartels have been using drones to help them track U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez said at a recent Congressional hearing.

Chavez testified that in the Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas alone, Border Patrol has faced over 10,000 drone incursions and 25,000 drone sightings in just one year.

“The adversaries have 17 times the number of drones, twice the amount of flight hours and unlimited funding to grow their operations,” Chavez said.

Department of Homeland Security sources say while the Rio Grande Valley is seeing the overwhelming majority of these sophisticated drones in U.S. airspace, incursions are happening all along the southern border.

“They’re using the drones because they can,” Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said. “They know it’s an extra tool that they can use, so they can continue to bring their drugs across, or they can continue to bring people across.”

Del Cueto says the drones have been spotted flying over border patrol stations and ports of entry, potentially gathering sensitive information.

“I don’t think the cartels need drones so they can bring drugs across at the port of entries,” Del Cueto said. “It’s obvious that a lot of these drugs are coming in between the ports.”

NewsNation has previously written about how human smuggling in the Rio Grande Valley is a daily occurrence, and lucrative business, for cartels south of the U.S. -Mexico border, leading some to invest in new technology. --->READ MORE HERE

U.S. Border Patrol via AP

Cartels using drones to track border officials, authorities tell Congress:

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez told Congress Tuesday that cartels have been utilizing drones to help them track the positions of border patrol officials in an effort to increase the success of their smuggling operations.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) sector, which stretches roughly 34,000 square miles, has faced "over 10,000 drone incursions" and 25,000 drone "detections" in just one year's time, according to Chavez.

Chavez said border patrol has made "great progress" in countering this threat. However, smugglers have "unlimited funding" to expand their drone operations, she added.

The adversaries have seventeen times the number of drones, twice the amount of flight hours and unlimited funding to grow their operations," Chavez insisted.

Cartels have made billions of dollars smuggling migrants, narcotics, firearms and currency across the border. While these efforts used to be less organized, operated by a scattered network of freelance "coyotes," they are now much more structured, according to a New York Times report. --->READ MORE HERE

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+++++10,000 cartel drones detected crossing U.S. border last year+++++

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