The Cartels are Establishing Their Own “Protected Airspace”

Organized crime has taken a significant step forward in the battle for control of the skies. The era of commandos firing at enemy aircraft from the ground is over.  Also gone are the days when available technology was limited to disorienting and bringing down rival drones. Now, cartels are creating their own “protected airspace.”

MILENIO witnessed that these areas are delimited and regulated by every state in the world, but upwards, in the air. In Mexico, their monitoring depends on the National Airspace Surveillance and Protection Center (Cenavi) of the Ministry of National Defense, which is responsible for detecting, intercepting, and neutralizing unauthorized flights.

This is a key task for the country’s internal security and protection against intrusions. But this is also a priority for organized crime: protecting its territory from enemies and trying to stop any operations by authorities from their positions in the sky.

That is why the cartels have copied, in their own way, a military model with the help of technology from China, Russia, and other countries.

MILENIO reviewed social media profiles linked to organized crime and found that five major criminal groups are already frequently using state-of-the-art C-UAS (Counter Unmanned Aircraft System) systems, that is, a set of technologies designed to detect, track, identify, and neutralize aircraft by arbitrarily establishing air exclusion zones.

The groups identified so far are La Mayiza, La Chapiza, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Carteles Unidos, and at least two factions of the Gulf Cartel in Tamaulipas, Los Metros and Los Escorpiones.

This technology is the successor to “drone jammers,” equipment that requires locating an aircraft via radar and attacking it as a specific target.

In contrast, C-UAS technology establishes invisible boundaries—as if it were a bubble in the sky—so that any unauthorized drone moving within that space can be automatically located and shot down. A kind of immaterial dome. “These are technologies used to detect, block, interfere with, and shoot down drones. When we talk about air exclusion zones, it’s not science fiction; it’s basically the creation of an invisible zone over a city, a camp, or a house, in which no drone can fly without being detected or neutralized,” says security expert Alberto Guerrero Baena.

“In effect, it’s about establishing their own fiefdoms, but not on land, but in the air.”

They shamelessly flaunt their Chinese high-tech

During the third week of January, two geolocated photographs from Sinaloa went viral: the first shows a young man, no older than 25, posing in a tactical vest and military camouflage clothing while holding a C-UAS device—a kind of portable cannon—from the Skyfend brand, a company founded in 2020 whose headquarters are more than 14,000 kilometers from northwestern Mexico: in Shenzhen, China, one of Asia’s most important technological hubs.

The second image is of another member of the same criminal group: a man with his face covered who is also carrying a C-UAS, as well as a kind of hard case or backpack with antennas and a tablet as a monitor. Both photographs were taken in San Ignacio, in the south of the state, and belong to fighters from La Mayiza.

“What does this system include? Hunter: an anti-drone device with a touchscreen, capable of detecting and neutralizing drones within a radius of up to three kilometers. Spoofer: a system that jams GPS signals, creating zones where drones cannot fly,” summarizes the @Furia_Tinta account on the social media platform X, whose owner identifies himself as a former Marine from the Mexican Navy.

This system constitutes a fully integrated SHH100 weapon system, which even includes a device that spoofs the digital identity of the drone to make it appear as a legitimate and reliable source. It is explicitly advertised with an illustration of an invisible dome similar to those used by countries like Israel, the United States, Russia, or Iran to protect themselves from hostile flying objects.

Its cost makes it accessible only to armies, large private companies, or the wealthiest criminal groups in the world, since each device is valued at between $200,000 and $300,000, or about 5.2 million pesos. The specialized website Intelligence Online dedicated a publication last July to a worrying discovery in another Mexican state that is a stronghold of those loyal to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada:

“In the heart of the state of Durango, Mexican Special Forces seized a complete arsenal of SkyFend equipment used to interfere with the Army’s tactical drones. This unprecedented seizure revealed a clandestine network connecting Shenzhen, Panama, and the Sinaloa Cartel.”

While La Mayiza imposes its own “protected airspace” in Durango and southern Sinaloa, Los Chapitos do the same in northern Sinaloa, Chihuahua, and Baja California, according to images of their hitmen carrying C-UAS equipment.

One image stands out among several: a young man geolocated in Ensenada with a mobile C-UAS system, meaning it scans the invisible dome as the wearer moves, a technology that just five years ago seemed like science fiction.

This city has become strategic for the binational fight against the cartels since February 2025, when the U.S. government deployed three vessels—including a warship—just 30 nautical miles, or 60 kilometers, from the port of Ensenada, as part of operations against fentanyl trafficking.

“Before, the airspace belonged to the State. Now, the cartels compete with each other using aerial surveillance: they spy on rivals and authorities, and defend routes and laboratories from the sky. And the government responds with low-altitude radar, electronic warfare, and signal jamming. It’s a new stage in the struggle for territory,” the expert says.

Nerds and Engineers at the Service of the Cartel

One of the most important innovations of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is the creation of specialized divisions. A kind of organizational model within the criminal enterprise. Among them are the Drone Operators, identified by patches on the tactical uniforms of the troops of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho.

The Drone Operators are the first technical-operational cell in the history of cartels that is dedicated exclusively to aerial tasks: aerial surveillance of routes, early detection of official aircraft, and drone attacks and counterattacks.

In recent months, they have added the task of establishing air control zones on the border between Jalisco and Michoacán, where they are engaged in a dispute against Carteles Unidos.

This group of false Michoacán self-defense forces has copied the model with other C-UAS systems: on social media, such as X or TikTok, photographs circulate of hitmen leaders carrying this state-of-the-art equipment to protect the operations of their leader, El R5 or El Güicho, Luis Enrique Barragán Chávez, head of the self-proclaimed Los Reyes Cartel.

Cartels use technology to establish airspace control

And specialized sites like Cuashub.com have published several articles in which they point to alleged overflights by US military forces that have encountered difficulties maneuvering their aircraft as they approach the border with Mexico, especially in Texas, the state bordering Tamaulipas, the stronghold of the Gulf Cartel, also known by the Department of Justice as a narco terrorist organization with heavy investments in state-of-the-art drones.

“The increasing use of armed drones by Mexican drug cartels, as well as their use for smuggling and now aerial surveillance tasks, has generated growing concern about the potential threat they pose to US military bases and other critical infrastructure,” writes Victoria Ayuso, a specialist on the specialized site.

The war has already taken off and become multidimensional. It is not only fought on land, water, and social media. The sky is the new battleground.

Source: Milenio