WashingtonReuters – The U.S. military used a laser in the Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas to shoot down three Mexican drug cartel drones this week near the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command said in a statement that the operation took place late Tuesday and early Wednesday and used the military’s high-energy multipurpose laser. The military did not give the precise location of the attacks or clarify whether they took place in US or Mexican territory. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that any unilateral action by the United States on Mexican soil would be a serious violation of her country’s sovereignty. The military said the drones posed “a physical threat” to the US military and US Customs and Border Protection personnel. “Cartel networks are increasingly employing drone systems to facilitate illicit human trafficking and actively spy on our law enforcement personnel and partners,” Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, commander of Joint Task Force-Southern Border, said in a statement. The announcement comes as US President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to clamp down on immigration and cartels, seeking to fulfill his 2024 presidential campaign promises. Since its creation in 2025, the border task force has conducted tens of thousands of detection and monitoring patrols and thousands of observation flights, the task force said. The military did not specify the manufacturer of the laser system. AeroVironment Inc delivered its first two high-energy multipurpose lasers to the US military last summer. The U.S. military previously deployed AeroVironment Inc.’s LOCUST system. The deployment of that system prompted a seven-hour airspace closure near Texas’ El Paso International Airport earlier this year. In February, the military accidentally shot down a U.S. government drone using a laser-based anti-drone system, congressional aides told Reuters at the time. U.S. security officials have expressed concern about the use of drones by Mexican cartels, which mostly employ crudely adapted versions of commercially available models to drop drug packages or surveil trafficking routes. In parts of Mexico farther from the U.S. border, cartels have used drones to deliver explosives in deadly attacks. U.S. and Mexican authorities are working together to combat the rise of drones in the border region.
