(TNND) — Mexican drug cartels have reportedly authorized the use of weaponized drones against U.S. Border Patrol agents as tensions rise over President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal migration and drugs along the southern border.

NewsNation and the New York Post reported they obtained U.S. Customs and Border Protection memos alerting field officers of the dangers.

“On February 1, 2025, the El Paso Sector Intelligence and Operations Center (EPT-IOC) received information advising that Mexican cartel leaders have authorized the deployment of drones equipped with explosives to be used against US Border Patrol agents and US military (personnel) currently working along the border with Mexico,” an internal memo said, according to The Post.

CBP declined to comment on the reported memos, but a spokesman provided The National News Desk with a statement.

“The U.S. Border Patrol’s mission includes detecting, deterring, disrupting, and apprehending dangerous individuals and narcotics from entering the U.S.,” the CBP spokesman said via email. “Threats and assaults against CBP personnel are taken very seriously. We remain vigilant and stand ready to ensure the safety of our personnel, aliens, and local communities, and the security of our borders.”

Trump is looking to make good on his campaign promise to slow the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also stepped up arrests of illegal immigrants within the country who are accused of crimes.

Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan indicated the crackdown is proving to be an effective deterrent to illegal immigration at our borders, telling Fox News this week that border crossings are down 93%.

“President Trump’s the game-changer,” Homan said. “No one has had the success he's had on securing the border. He clearly understands we can't have strong national security if we don't have border security.”

Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, and the U.S. military is sending 1,500 active duty troops to the border, along with additional air and intelligence assets to assist other federal agencies and branches of service that are working to enforce border security.

Mexico is also sending 10,000 national guard troops to its side of the border as part of an agreement to pause tariffs.

Cartels rule their territories by fear, and there’s good reason to expect them to escalate their violence if they feel threatened by stricter U.S. border enforcement, said Sheriff Leon N. Wilmot of Yuma County, Arizona.

Wilmot, a border sheriff, said he’s seen cartel violence on the Mexican side of the border increase over the last several years.

He’s been dealing with two different cartel networks, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel. And he’s seen them target Mexican politicians, police and civilian migrants that don’t give them what they demand.

Cartels are “very well armed,” Wilmot said.

“They've got better weapons than the police officers over there,” he said.

That includes body armor and armored vehicles.

“And they go into communities, and then they take them over,” Wilmot said.

The cartels have the means to carry out the weaponized drone attacks CBP reportedly warned its agents about, according to Wilmot.

The cartels have explosives, and Wilmot said the cartels already use drones to smuggle drugs over the U.S. border.

Wilmot said the cartels “control every bit of the international boundary” on the Mexican side.

No migrant crosses into the U.S. without paying the cartels for permission first, he said.

The U.S. border crackdown is “impacting them significantly, by the billions of dollars in smuggling of humans across the international boundary, let alone narcotics,” Wilmot said.

The sheriff said he’s hopeful the increased troop presence on both sides can prevent the cartels from engaging in a border war.