General concerned about drone traffic on southern border

 DC Daily Journal:

...

Now a top general told senators on Thursday that more than 1,000 drones cross into U.S. airspace near the Mexican border each month.

The amount of unmanned drone incursions is “alarming” and poses a “growing” potential threat to national security, Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of North American Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

“The number of incursions was something that was alarming to me as I took command last month,” Guillot said in response to a question from Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC).

“I don’t know the actual number – I don’t think anybody does – but it’s in the thousands,” he added.

When Budd probed Guillot on the period used by the general to establish his estimate, he replied, “We can probably have over 1,000 a month.”

The top NORAD official stated that, while the number of invasions concerns him, he has not “seen any of them manifest in a threat to the level of national defense.”

“But I see the potential only growing,” Guillot said.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, Mexican cartels have been using drones to track the whereabouts of authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border, making it easier to smuggle humans and drugs.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez told the House Oversight Committee in February 2023 that in her Texas sector alone, over 10,000 drone intrusions and 25,000 drone sightings had been reported in the previous year.

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

In January 2023, officials acquired drone footage of Border Patrol agents purportedly shot by human smugglers during a raid on what was thought to be a safe house used to conceal migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Human smugglers using drones to surveil the Border Patrol is a growing trend that we’ve observed along the border,” San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron M. Heitke said in a statement.
...

The drones are likely used by the drug cartel for both intelligence purposes and also for transporting drugs in small quantities.  The Border Patrol appears to be outmanned and out-armed in the battle with drones.  If the US had sufficient drones it could use them to trace the incursions and arrest the perps.

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