drones used to target children and child trafficking

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Criminal groups increasingly deploying drones — for purposes ranging from surveillance to reported armed attacks of rivals — has provoked a strong government response in Mexico. But will it be enough?

To monitor and disable drones, Mexico’s Defense Ministry (Secretaría de Defensa Nacional — SEDENA) plans to employ an anti-drone system costing 215.7 million pesos (about $9.6 million), according to a September 21 El Universal report based on documents obtained by the media outlet.

The acquisition of the new technology comes about a month after a striking report that claimed the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación — CJNG) had deployed drones loaded with military-grade C4 explosives in Tepalcatepec, Michoacán. The drones targeted local vigilante groups.

SEE ALSO: Are Armed Drones the Weapon of the Future for Mexico’s Cartels?

While the alleged equipping of drones with explosives by one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels may have raised concerns among authorities, drone use by criminal groups is usually limited to surveillance.

In September, indigenous leaders in the Caru area of Brazil’s northern Maranhão state said they feared their territory was being continuously monitored with drones controlled by illegal loggers and drug traffickers seeking to plant marijuana in the zone, UOL News reported.

And drug traffickers in Guatemala employed drones to guide drug planes to clandestine landing strips hidden in Laguna del Tigre National Park, the Washington Post reported in July.

Rangers and soldiers in the zone said they could hear drones fly over jungle bases about once a week. The drug planes subsequently arrived after dark, indicating that traffickers had been using the devices to survey the whereabouts of authorities to ensure a problem-free landing for their pilots.

“Their resources are infinite, and we are just trying to keep up,” Juan de la Paz, a Guatemalan army colonel based in the area, told the Washington Post.

The Brookings Institute recently predicted that increased restriction of movement associated with the COVID-19 pandemic would only serve to speed up the proliferation of drone use by crime groups.

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