The U.S. military used a high-energy laser to shoot down a suspected drone at the southern border that turned out to be a party balloon, according to a new report.
The mistaken identification led to the full closure of the airspace over El Paso on Wednesday morning.
Fox News reported that the Pentagon has been testing new counter-drone technology near the Army base at Fort Bliss, including the high-energy laser.
Earlier, another U.S. official had told the outlet that drones belonging to Mexican cartels had entered the country and measures had been taken to disable them.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government didn’t have any information indicating drone activity along its side of the border. “If the FAA or any U.S. government agency has relevant information, they can ask directly the Government of Mexico,” she said.
The order warned pilots, saying they could be “intercepted, detained and interviewed by law enforcement/security personnel” if they didn’t comply. It also said the government could use “deadly force” if it “determined that the aircraft poses an imminent security threat.”
The order didn’t have any recent precedent. Robert Moore, founder and CEO of El Paso Matters, told CNN “we’ve never since anything like this here at least since 9/11, when everything was grounded.” The outlet also cited an air-traffic controller who could be heard telling flight crews that “not even medevac are allowed to fly.”
Both the U.S. and the Mexican government, however, have been warning about an increased use of drones by criminal organizations. As a result, the U.S. and Mexico said they would step up cooperation to deal with the matter.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in December that the issue was discussed during a meeting of the U.S.-Mexico Security Implementation Group (SIG) in Mexico City.
“(They asked) what Mexico is doing, what is it that we know. These are discussions that contribute to strengthen security on both sides of the border,” Sheinbaum added. The governments reportedly agreed to link intelligence analytics software to identify threats.
“It is important to them, but not because of a specific case. We have not detected this on the border, but it is important to the United States and it is part of the communication we have,” Sheinbaum said.
Originally published on Latin Times
