U.S. military aircraft may have spied on drug cartels during recent flights near Mexican territory, the government said Tuesday.
Mexico was aware of two such U.S. military flights in late January and early February that were in international airspace, Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla told a news conference.
Asked whether the aircraft had spied on Mexican drug traffickers, the general said: “We can’t rule it out because we don’t know what they did.”
The plane that Mexico observed flying near its territory did not violate national airspace and kept its tracking devices on, in compliance with international regulations, Trevilla said.
Any intelligence gathered from Mexican territory would have to be shared under agreements between the two countries, he said.
CNN reported on Monday that the US military had “significantly increased” its aerial surveillance of the cartels over the past two weeks. It said that spy planes, including Navy P-8s, had flown at least 18 missions over U.S. territory and in international airspace around Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, passing near the cartel stronghold of Sinaloa on one occasion.
One of President Donald Trump’s first actions after taking office in January was to designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
Mexico this month began moving more troops to its northern border to tackle illegal migration and drug smuggling under an agreement that saw Mr. Trump pause tariffs on Mexican goods.
Earlier this month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum angrily rejected an accusation by the United States Saturday that her government has an alliance with drug cartels.
“We categorically reject the slander made by the White House against the Mexican government about alliances with criminal organizations,” Sheinbaum wrote on social media.
“If there is such an alliance anywhere, it is in the U.S. gun shops that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups,” she added.
Last month, Sheinbaum officially launched a campaign to crack down on the number of weapons on the country’s streets.
The plan, called “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace,” offers cash to those who anonymously leave weapons at designated drop-off locations, including churches.
Gun owners will get 8,700 pesos ($430) for a revolver, 25,000 pesos ($1,200) for an AK-47 rifle and 26,450 pesos ($1,300) for a machine gun. The firearms are then to be destroyed.