Mexican cartel drones forced temporary closure of El Paso International Airport, airspace

The FAA has closed the airspace around El Paso International Airport for a period of 10 days. They grounded all flights early Wednesday morning, citing "special security reasons," and did not provide further information. Those reasons were revealed to be drones from Mexican drug cartels.

"The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal," the FAA posted. It was shut down for only a few hours before it was reopened. El Paso is a border town where sophisticated cross-border tunnels have been found. Illegal immigrants have also been able to get city IDs in El Paso.

CBS' Jennifer Jacobs reported that "The decision to close El Paso International Airport to all flights for 10 days was triggered by Mexican cartel drones breaching US airspace, officials told @CBSNews. War Dept took action to disable the drones."

After the airspace closure was lifted, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the FAA, as well as the Dept. of War, "acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region." 

Border Patrol agents are routinely spied on by drones coming from the Mexican side of the border and there have been concerns about drones being used for bombs, as they have been in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. 

The original closure would have lasted through February 20 for an airport that serves a city of about 700,000 people, with an expansive metro area. Democrat Rep. Veronica Escobar balked at the closure, saying, "The highly consequential decision by FAA to shut down the El Paso Airport for 10 days is unprecedented and has resulted in significant concern within the community. From what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas."

There have been concerns about the cartel's use of drones at the US-Mexico border. Officials in New Mexico met last week to talk about the increased use of those drones by the criminal groups. Those officials are seeking to create laws that make it a crime to operate unmanned aircraft and set penalties for violations. 

"Examples of unlawful use is directing the drone toward critical infrastructure such as utility plants, pipelines, jails, detention centers or airports. Other instances are using a drone in the commission of a crime or capturing images of a person for unauthorized surveillance," cites Border Report.

"We have not seen drones used to commit actual violent acts in New Mexico, but we do know that’s happened in Mexico," said New Mexico's Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman. "So we are very concerned with drones used in criminal activity, organized crime – specifically, drugs – human trafficking, mapping out (smuggling) routes."