Mexico City — The Mexican military acknowledged for the first time Friday that some of its soldiers have been killed by explosives launched from drones by organized crime groups.
Defense Secretary General Luis Cresencio Sandoval did not give exact figures on the number of casualties suffered in the attacks, which he said occurred mainly in the west of the country.
“In Michoacán we have had some attacks of this nature and where our personnel have suffered injuries, and some of our officers have even died,” said Sandoval.
The military had previously acknowledged that some soldiers had been injured by explosive devices in the cartel-heavy state.
The army chief did not clarify when the attacks took place but suggested they targeted military patrols. He added that the Ministry of Defense was acquiring anti-drone systems to combat such a threat.
“What we are looking for with these anti-drone (teams) is to have that capacity, which we did not have, for the personnel who are carrying out reconnaissance and patrols in different areas,” he added.
Sandoval added that the army continues to find many more bombs on the roads than those dropped by drones.
The Jalisco Nueva General Cartel has been fighting local gangs for control of Michoacán for years, and the situation has become so militarized that the opposing groups are using improvised explosives, roadside bombs, sniper rifles, and building trenches, forts, and even homemade armor for vehicles.
In some cases, they also use large commercial drones with special mechanisms to drop small, rather professional-looking aerial bombs. Last year, authorities discovered a machine shop used to make metal bomb casings for such attacks.
In the only detailed report on bomb attacks, released in August 2023, the Defense Ministry said a total of 42 soldiers, police officers and suspects had been injured by IEDs in the first seven and a half months of that year compared with 16 in all of 2022.
In 2023, a National Guard officer and four state police officers were killed in two separate car bomb attacks.
Authorities detected at least 260 drone-launched explosives that year, something that had never happened in Mexico before 2020. But that number could be an undercount because residents in parts of Michoacán recently reported drone bombings almost daily.
Also on Friday, the Mexican Navy acknowledged that two Navy helicopter crew members had died earlier this year when their helicopter went down in the Pacific Ocean while chasing cocaine-smuggling boats.
Officials said the U.S. Navy had agreed to help recover the sunken helicopter and the remains of its crew.
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