By taking advantage of a legal loophole, the Sinaloa Cartel’s La Mayiza faction has equipped itself with government-grade drone-jamming technology, according to various security sources.
Images on social media show a member of that criminal group equipped with at least three Skyfend devices. The individual is dressed in military-style clothing, equipped with some kind of long gun, an electronic tablet, and a backpack with two antennas.
The Mayiza mob uses state-of-the-art drones.
Federal and state authorities indicated that this is the most specialized equipment civilians can access, with technology used in electronic warfare operations and anti-drone countermeasures.
Although these devices are typically used in civilian settings to protect private buildings, the Mayiza mob is using them in Sinaloa to combat unmanned aerial vehicles used against them by the armed forces.
MILENIO has reported that the Ministry of National Defense is promoting the acquisition of more unmanned systems equipped with surveillance and reconnaissance equipment, with the aim of strengthening its drone squadron, known as 601.
This is primarily due to the use that organized crime has made of drones, both for dropping explosive devices and for espionage tasks.
What drones does La Mayiza use?
The sources consulted indicated that La Mayiza has at least three state-of-the-art components. The first is the SkyFend Hunter, a type of rifle that actually operates as a portable jammer, combining drone detection and suppression.
It has the ability to simultaneously disrupt the control link, navigation, and video transmission of multiple drones, with a signal jamming range of up to three kilometers.
They also have a backpack, the SkyFend Spoofer, a spoofing device that continuously sends false signals within a range of two kilometers, causing any drone that enters the area to lose control and crash or fly out of the protected zone.
The third device used by the Mayiza mob is an electronic tablet called the SkyFend Guider, a portable command and control center (C2) that integrates the data collected by the two previous devices to maintain real-time monitoring and simultaneous control of up to 10 drones.
The SkyFend Hunter alone costs $100,000, or about two million pesos, according to information found in various specialized forums.
Despite the technology and price of these devices, their sale is not regulated in Mexico, and therefore, no tracking of the equipment sold within the country is carried out.
A bill to regulate the purchase and sale of drones on digital platforms is currently in the Senate. It was introduced with the aim of reducing attacks on the armed forces using these devices.
Skyfend is a Chinese company based in the modern city of Shenzhen and founded in 2015. In July 2024, an Amnesty International report noted the use of Skyfend devices in the armed conflict in Sudan.
“SkyFend Hunters are manufactured by a Shenzhen-based company, Shenzhen Skyfend Technology Co Ltd, which has been shipping jamming weapons to at least one Russian company sanctioned by the Ukrainian government as of December 2023,” AI stated in its report.
Source: Milenio
Discover more from Cartel Insider
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
