US military aircraft may have spied on drug cartels during recent flights near Mexican territory, the government said Tuesday.
Mexico was aware of two such US military flights in late January and early February that were in international airspace, Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla told a news conference.
Asked whether the aircraft had spied on Mexican drug traffickers, the general said: “We can’t rule it out because we don’t know what they did.”
The plane that Mexico observed flying near its territory did not violate national airspace and kept its tracking devices on, in compliance with international regulations, Trevilla said.
Any intelligence gathered from Mexican territory would have to be shared under agreements between the two countries, he said.
CNN reported on Monday that the US military had “significantly increased” its aerial surveillance of the cartels over the past two weeks.
It said that spy planes had flown at least 18 missions over US territory and in international airspace around Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, passing near the cartel stronghold of Sinaloa on one occasion.
One of US President Donald Trump’s first actions after taking office in January was to designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
Mexico this month began moving more troops to its northern border to tackle illegal migration and drug smuggling under an agreement that saw Trump pause tariffs on Mexican goods.