Drug cartels in Mexico are reportedly targeting US Border Patrol agents with explosives and kamikaze drones.
The attacks come after President Trump announced a crackdown on illegal migrants crossing the southern border and Mexico pledged to send 10,000 troops to the other side of the border.
Officers were warned through an alert that they must ‘remain cognizant of their surroundings at all times’ in the face of new threats as the cartels desperately attempt to thwart the authorities.
In an internal memo, seen by The New York Post, agents received a ‘Officer Safety Alert’.
It read: ‘On February 1, 2025, the El Paso Sector Intelligence and Operations Center (EPT-IOC) received information advising that Mexican cartel leaders have authorized the deployment of drones equipped with explosives to be used against US Border Patrol agents and US military personal currently working along the border with Mexico.
‘It is recommended that all US Border Patrol agents and DoD personnel working along the border report any sighting of drones to their respective leadership staff and the EPT-IOC.’
Officers on the border have also been told to make sure they have the ‘proper equipment’ to deal with an incident. This includes a first aid kit, tourniquets and body armour.
According to News Nation, cartels are also allegedly using social media apps to tell illegal immigrants to spit and urinate on ICE agents’ food and defecate in their vehicles.
In one particularly shocking post, they encouraged people to murder local ICE agents.
The memo comes a week after a shocking video showed American Border Patrol stationed at the Mexican border being shot at fired by a suspected drug cartel attempting to smuggle illegal migrants into Texas.
The gunfight broke out on Monday January 27 in Fronton, Texas, near Guadalupe Guerra, exactly one week after President Donald Trump returned to office and began his sweeping deportation crackdown as he declared Mexican drug cartels as ‘terrorists’.
Footage shows a small group of rifle-bearing cartel members crossing from Mexico onto an island in the Rio Grande river.
Dressed in black or in camouflage outfits, the gangsters can be seen swinging their weapons around and pointing them up to American drones patrolling the area.
They can also be seen walking along the riverbank in a separate clip before they are joined by a a few other gang members.
Another video shows one man dressed in black hiding in some bushes, as he points his weapon towards a drone.
He then backs away and moves deeper into the foliage, where the outlines of other man can also be seen.
The footage was released by Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
A separate image shows the cartel members pointing their guns in an upward direction.
No agents were injured in this shootout.
Meanwhile, Trump’s new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has claimed Trump is open to using airstrikes against the cartels.
Speaking with his former Fox News colleagues Friday morning, Hegseth revealed that Trump is instructing him to make available any resources needed to go after the cartels.
Host Brian Kilmeade asked Hegseth: ‘If we find that they continue to fire at Border Control and they continue to put fentanyl into our country, as a secretary of defense, are you permitted now to go after them in Mexico or where they are?’
‘Brian, I don’t want to get ahead of the president and I won’t,’ the secretary started. ‘That’s ultimately going to be his decision.’
‘But let me be clear,’ he said. ‘All options will be on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border.’
Hegseth’s broad response could be understood to mean any array of U.S. military might, including strikes from the land, sea or air, could be ‘on the table’ to go after the cartels.
He also noted that the U.S. military is also shifting its posture to better defend the country at home.