Mexican Drone Crashes in El Paso Backyard
Really. First, why does Mexico have aerial drones? Next, why are they buzzing Texas?
30 Responses to “Mexican Drone Crashes in El Paso Backyard”
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December 17th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Same reason we do: cheap aerial reconnaissance.
Same reason ours our buzzing the Mexican border. I’d like to think that the Mexican government is putting at least some effort forward to shut down the narcotraficantes from their side of the border.
Besides, it’s not like it landed in Dallas or something; according to Google maps, you could have just about thrown it from Mexico and had it land where it did. We’re talking about a couple blocks from the border fence…
December 17th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Ah. close to border then. that makes sense.
Wait, there’s a fence?
December 17th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
How many bullet holes did it have in it?
December 17th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
There is in the middle of El Paso.
Most urban areas have pretty serious fence/wall action going on. Way out in the sticks it’s usually only a few strands of barbed wire…
December 17th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
More importantly, why did the feddies warn to cops off?
“El Paso police Detective Mike Baranyay said. “We were told it was not a police matter.””
Not to mention, why the rush since the delivery of the UAV to a foreign national was a violation of US export laws unless they first obtained a license from the Department of State. The UAV is listed on the US Munitions List and requires a license for export or re-export from the US.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Am I the only one who thinks that maybe, just maybe, that puppy had a Mexican flag painted on the side, and cocaine in the body?
UAVs would be a good way for cartels to lose equipment instead of employees. Equipment can’t be interrogated for intelligence.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
UAVs, if they lose the control radio link, generally keep flying in a straight line along their last heading, until they run out of fuel, or hit the ground for some other reason.
So if the Mexicans were using it on their side, and lost link, it could easily have ended up on our side of the fence.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
If it crashed in my yard, I sure as hell wouldn’t give it back – and especially not deliver it…. If the Mexican thugocracy (I can’t call it a government) wants it back they can negotiate with my attorneys. And the US Government can show up with a warrant.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
My suspicion is that Mexico probably doesn’t have aerial drones. The drug lords do, as do the people in their employ in the police and the army. If that is correct, then the obvious answer would be that the drug lords were searching for US authorities in preparation for some kind of illegal operation.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I’m betting that it had a Mexican flag painted on it, and a sticker inside that read “Property of US govt DEA”.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
Archelon +1
The article DOES NOT detail any proof that it was actually a GOM drone, only that (supposedly), someone from the GOM came and got it from the USA.
In UAV ops, you don’t fly a drone out near the end of it’s contact range. First of all, you don’t get good intell with insufficient bandwidth (lousy images), and secondly, you can lose the whole drone. All drone operators know this basic stuff. I say it was a cartel drone, and they were looking for hidey-holes, etc.
This makes the drone an instrument of war, since it wasn’t authorized in the first place. If it WAS authorized, and OUR Gov’t is lying to us about it, well, that’s what courts are for, aren’t they?
December 17th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Yeah, Mexico has missile patrol boats and airborne early-warning planes and jet fighters and Milan ATGM’s and surface-to-air missiles, but they’re military is obviously too primitive to figure out radio-controlled airplanes…
It must’ve been the cartels!
December 17th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
“their” military, dammit.
December 17th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I googled up the type of drone, and it’s pretty small and low tech.
I’m just scratching my head why they gave the thing back so fscking fast.
BTW, this (slightly off topic) is civilian controlled, near NYC, and wicked cool:
youtube.com/watch?v=M9cSxEqKQ78
December 17th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Y’all:
It could be both — it could belong to the Mexican military (courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer) AND it could have been put to work on behalf of cartel smuggling operations on the border by corrupt military personnel. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time…
The drone might have been used as a recon tool, to observe the Border Patrol and find safe areas for traffickers to pass through.
It’s getting mighty hard to distinguish the cartels from the government down south — try borderlandbeat.com for an eye-opening education on the subject.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Tam, I think you misunderstand my post.
I do not doubt the technical capability of their armed forces in this respect. I did not say they lack the ability to use them, just that they probably don’t have them. UAVs are a fairly recent development in warfare, and not every country has them. While there have been reports that Mexico will start using them, I haven’t seen anything saying that they actually are using them. Hence, an assumption they do not actually have any right now.
I do follow these things a bit from time to time for my job. Not enough to claim good knowledge, but I’m not just shooting off my mouth, either.
Not to mention it seems to me that if it did belong to the Mexican government, there would be some public confirmation of that in this incident.
But I certainly will stand to be corrected on the Mexican government’s current use (or non-use) of UAVs.
So, unless my assumption is wrong, if it’s from Mexico and it’s not the government’s, who does that leave? Some farmer’s cooperative or ag extension? The city of Juarez? The list of legitimate candidates is pretty much the government or the drug lords.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Tam beat me to it. What’s surprising about Mexico having UAVs?
They’re cheaper than real planes!
Archelon: See here; they just last year bought a bunch of Israeli UAVs (and aerostats); Hermes 450s, Skystar 300s, Skylark-Is, and Orbiters.
Now, it seems likely to me that since they bought them last year and were talking about their urgent need in anti-Cartel operations, that it’s pretty likely they’d have had SOME of them in the field by now.
(Plus, of course, the US government reports are unanimous in maintaining it was Mexican Government property.
Any better confirmation in public would have to come from the Mexicans… and, well, I don’t speak Spanish and don’t really care about their press releases, so I’m not going to bother to look.)
Standard: Why wouldn’t they give it back so fast?
Look at it from DHS/US Government’s point of view:
It’s an unarmed and uninteresting craft operated openly (in that at very least the Mexicans tell our Goverment about it) by a friendly state to patrol our mutual border.
It crashed uneventfully and harmlessly within glide-path range of the border, in a way completely unremarkable for such a craft.
The normal response in such a situation between friendly nations is to give it back post-haste.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Indeed, Sigivald, they purchased them. I read DID and subscribe to their daily e-mail newsletter. Any reports on delivery? Any reports that they are deployed? I actually would have thought that they could have them fielded in 6-8 months after purchase.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
>Standard: Why wouldn’t they give it back so fast?
Um, Because the Mexican government invaded our airspace?
Because the government has a reputation for taking their damn sweet time returning personal property confiscated under color of law?
December 17th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Actually, the article only says that Mexico “will be” purchasing, not that they had.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Good God! I’m a pretty deep conspiracy theorist myself, but this whole thing just screams “nothing to see here, folks, move along”. I first read about it on MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40716199/ns/us_news-security/
This article makes it pretty clear that it belongs to the Mexican government, it was an Orbiter Mini UAV built by an Israeli company, and that it may not have been fully deployed (maybe this was a testing incident) but that everything looks above-board.
> Um, Because the Mexican government invaded our airspace?
Sure. They “invaded” a backyard a few blocks from the border with an unarmed UAV having a payload of 1.5 kilos, max. Way to go Mexico, awesome invasion!
December 17th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I’m betting they bought it at one of those pesky US air shows, using the air show loophole!
You know those drones dealers will sell drones to anyone.
/heh
December 17th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Who’s to say it’s not from the Narco-Terrorists? It’s not that hard to get a complete set up now-a-days…
Best Regards,
Albert “Afghanus” Rasch
Albert Rasch In Afghanistan: She had Beautiful Green Eyes…
December 17th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Villa rides.
Zimmerman Telegram.
Francisco d’Anconia.
Let’s not limit our horizons. And I for one am thankful it didn’t land any nearer to Roswell.
December 18th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Didn’t they blame weather balloons in Roswell?
They’re just saying its a drone…..
December 18th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Mexican aerial drones are probably to aid and abet the invasion….which has been and is being allowed by the officiadom Washington D.C. in criminal and treasonous violation of: …”the United States SHALL…protect the States against Invasion” (Article IV, Section 4, U.S. Constitution)
The borders have to remain open for NAFTA:
“It will represent the most creative step toward a new world order taken by any group of countries since the end of the Cold War, and the first step toward an even larger vision of a free-trade zone for the entire Western Hemisphere.” NAFTA “is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a new international system. …NAFTA is a major stepping stone to the New World Order.” —Henry Kissinger, writing in support of NAFTA, 1993
December 18th, 2010 at 11:58 am
I’m surprised this took a whole 26 comments to turn up.
December 18th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Tep, Tam,
It’s been reported in the past that the Me’ican gov’t assists illegal immigrants with maps, provisions, etc. for their “migration” north.
Here lately, it is reported that a portion of Arizona is under OCCUPATION so that the Feds have posted it as off limits to citizens. But the Federal gov’t is fighting Arizona!!!
But as President Jorge W. Bush said, “we can’t militarize the border”. Recall that back when some of the TN National Guard was deployed there and, when met by an armed incursion, they RETREATED according to orders!! And, of course, there has been no CHANGE with the Obama Administration.
December 18th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I mean “Yep”
December 20th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
I concede on the basis of the MSNBC article linked by Gun Blobber, although I will point out that there is not necessarily a distinction between the police and the criminals in Mexico. The two theories are therefore not mutually exclusive. But the article does say that the UAV belonged to the Mexican federal police.