Sky High Cartels: El Paso Airspace Cleared after Reports of Drug Drone ‘incursion’
The recent brief closure of airspace over El Paso, Texas — initially announced as a 10-day shutdown and abruptly lifted within hours — has sparked confusion, concern, and more questions than answers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy framed the incident as a response to a “cartel drone incursion” that was “neutralized” by the Department of Defense, prompting an unprecedented flight restriction over a major U.S. city’s commercial airspace.
Investigative journalist Bill Conroy brings four decades of experience covering Latin America, immigration, drug cartels, and the inner workings of federal agencies. He has specialized expertise in the drug trade and the operations of DHS agencies, including ICE. While the full truth is not yet known, what is known is that drones have become a tool of the cartel trade.
Bill Conroy’s New Book, The Great Pretense: A Tour Through the Boneyard of the CIA’s War For Drugs
For most Americans, the idea of Mexican cartel-run drones entering U.S. skies sounds cinematic or exaggerated. But Conroy — a veteran journalist who’s reported on the intersecting worlds of immigration, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and narcotics economies — offers rare insight into what drone usage by cartels really looks like, why it’s more than hypothetical, and how this alleged incursion fits into evolving transnational criminal tactics.
Conroy has reported extensively on how cartels employ unmanned aircraft systems for surveillance, smuggling, and tactical advantage, including movements of fentanyl, cocaine, and other illicit goods. He can explain how affordable, commercially available drones have become tools of choice for non-state criminal actors, expanding their operational reach across borders in ways traditional law enforcement and defense agencies struggle to track.
What makes the El Paso episode particularly noteworthy — and puzzling — is not only the claim of a drone breach but the government’s contradictory communication, the lack of local notification, and the absence of clear evidence released publicly. Local leaders, including Rep. Veronica Escobar and El Paso’s mayor, have questioned official narratives and called for transparency.
Conroy can break down whether this incident represents an actual cartel escalation, a miscommunication among federal agencies, or a symptom of a larger struggle over how best to secure the U.S.–Mexico border and respond to low-cost aerial threats.
He can discuss:
- How cartels have historically used drones and why they matter
- The challenges of detecting and defending against small unmanned systems
- What an event like this — confirmed or unconfirmed — signals about future border security
- Why clarity from authorities matters to public trust and regional stability
This is not speculation — it’s reporting grounded in decades of on-the-ground observation of cartel evolution. Bill Conroy is uniquely positioned to help your audience understand what is really happening and why it matters.
SUGGESTED Q&A
- What do we actually know — and not know — about the alleged cartel drone incident over El Paso, and why has the official messaging been so inconsistent?
- Based on your decades covering cartels, how commonly do criminal organizations use drones, and for what specific purposes?
- Why would a drone incursion over El Paso airspace be unusual compared to other parts of the U.S.–Mexico border?
- How do cartels typically use drones for drug trafficking, surveillance, or testing law enforcement responses?
- Is the technology cartels are using mostly commercial off-shelf equipment, or something more advanced?
- Could this incident reflect interagency confusion rather than a true escalation by cartels — and how does that affect public trust?
- What does this episode reveal about the U.S. government’s ability to detect and counter small unmanned aerial threats?
- Looking ahead, are drone operations likely to become a bigger part of cartel strategy, and is the U.S. prepared for that reality?
Related Article(s)
Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport – The New York Times
US reopens airspace over El Paso after ‘cartel drone incursion’
ABOUT BILL CONROY…
Bill Conroy, M.A. in Mass Communications/Journalism (Marquette University), is a veteran journalist with 40 years of experience working as a staff reporter, editor-in-chief, and freelance correspondent at print and online publications across the United States and in Mexico. His journalism has been cited in more than 35 books to date. Conroy also is the author of the nonfiction books The Great Pretense: A Tour Through the Boneyard of the CIA’s War for Drugs; Dispatches from the House of Death: A Juarez Cartel informant, a DEA whistleblower, mass murder and a coverup on the edge of the Empire; and Borderline Security: A Chronicle of Reprisal, Cronyism and Corruption in the U.S. Customs Service.
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