Before Tijuana, there was El Paso: The Texas operation behind Mexico's new anti-drone strategy

Mexico’s new anti-drone operation on the Tijuana–San Diego border is modeled on an earlier binational exercise between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, run quietly five months ago. According to Mexico’s Defense Ministry (SEDENA), that pilot ran March 17–31 and established a “mirror operations” framework where Mexican and U.S. forces detect and disable smuggler drones while operating strictly in their own territory. Unlike the Tijuana deployment, where SEDENA disclosed force size and coverage—800 troops over a five-kilometer area near Mesa de Otay—SEDENA released no comparable details for the El Paso–Juárez test, including troop numbers, equipment or results. The Texas pilot appears to have served as a proof of concept before Mexico scaled the approach. The move comes amid rising border drone activity, with U.S. Northern Command reporting more than 300 cartel-linked drones neutralized this year and, since Aug. 24, use of a high-energy laser in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley area.