Real Story Behind El Paso Airport Drone Closure

AENN

Chriss Street

Feb 11, 2026

The Federal Aviation Administration closed the airspace over El Paso, Texas and adjacent parts of southern New Mexico to facilitate a Department of War counterstrike against New Generation Jalisco Cartel’s use of drone swarms.

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With administration going all-in to seal-off the southern border from human mules and sink any water-borne smuggling, the price of drugs in the U.S. has more than doubled and cartels have begun battling each other.

New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) that was originally founded by elements of the Mexican Army Special Forces, spun off from the Sinaloa Cartel in 2010 and has expanded across Mexico and now dominates fentanyl and other illicit drug flows to the U.S. and around the world.

CJNG has a hierarchical command structure in which regional leaders manage day-to-day operations for the group’s founder and overall leader, Ruben Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. ‘El Mencho.’ The cartel uses corporate model with affiliation agreements between smaller local cartels.

CJNG’s criminal activities generated billions of dollars each year from trafficking drugs to the United States, Australia, Canada, as well as nations in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and Europe. CJNG’s de facto control of the Port of Manzanillo in Colima, Mexico allowed the group to import precursor chemicals to produce fentanyl and methamphetamine.

CJNG has used extreme violence and intimidating media to coerce local populations into cooperating with the group, overcome rival cartels, Mexican security forces, and exert control over the cartel’s own members. CJNG also coerces or monetarily incentivizes local, state, and federal judges, prosecutors, politicians, and security forces to enable the group’s activities.

CJNG conducts public executions and displays the bodies, often publicizing these acts on social media or leaving threatening messages. The cartel has kidnapped and “disappeared” civilians, and it has attacked and assassinated Mexican politicians, judges, and law enforcement officers.

With the Trump administration sealing-off air, foot and sea traffic, CJNG has ramped-up a huge drone fleet composed mostly of modified $1,000 quadcopters, such as DJI Maverick 3s, DJI Matrix 300s, and Autel Robotics EVO IIs with extended range antennas and aftermarket batteries that can carry 200 lbs. payloads for 45 minutes to ranges of up to 10 nautical miles.

CJNG has sent several operator units to Ukrainian drone academies to learn state-of-the-arts Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) in battles with the Russians. Graduates know how to analyze data to provide actionable intelligence for battlefield situational awareness.

Elite CJNG drone teams in Mexico are very well-compensated and wear military-type fatigues with the cartel’s own identifying patches. Key training in Ukraine included use dozens of drones in swarms that have been able to overwhelm American border monitoring and drug interdiction.

CJNG teams have also fielded advanced electronic warfare technologies, including signal jammers to disrupt communication, evade security forces, and support their widespread use of weaponized drones.

Deputy Director of the Counter-Drone program at the Homeland Security, Steven Willoughby, publicly testified to the Congressional Defense Appropriations Committee in July 2025, that 27,000 drones piloted by organizations hostile to law enforcement had flown within about 1,650 feet of the U.S. border over six month period in 2024. Willoughby did not go into detail on the nature of the anti-drone technology his department was testing.

The Trump has been inching closer to the use of military force against Mexican drug cartels for the last few months. During his 2024 election campaign, Trump promised to make military incursions into Mexico if it meant protecting American youth from fentanyl.

It appears the Pentagon decided to test the new counter-drone technology, probably a high-energy counter-measure laser, coming out of the huge Fort Bliss U.S. Army training center that stretches from El Paso to New Mexico.

Without pre-notice, the FAA halted all flights at El Paso International Airport at 11:30:pm CST on February 10^th, diverting incoming and freezing out-going traffic for 10 days in what was described as “special security reasons”.

It was already known that the U.S. military after snatching Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in his underwear on January 3^rd, deployed Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel low observable unmanned aircraft out of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to support southern border ISR.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and officials from the White House and the Pentagon surprisingly announced that El Paso airport had been reopened at 7 am CST. Duffy attributed the closure as due to Mexican cartel drones breaching U.S. airspace.

The Trump administration has not made any comments about cartel losses.

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