Border Agents Seize Drones Flying Meth, Heroin, Fentanyl Across U.S. Borders

We received 14 pages of records from U.S. Customs and Border Protection in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that show border agents seizing drones transporting methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl across the U.S. southern and northern borders.

These documents dramatically confirm that the Biden administration allowed the drug cartels, which the Trump administration has correctly identified as terrorist threats, to engage military-like drone campaigns against the United States from abroad.

The records were produced in response to a March 16, 2022, FOIA request for:

Any and all records maintained by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security concerning (1) drones recovered or seized along the United States and Mexico Border (2) type and quantity of any illegal drugs seized from those drones recovered or seized drones (3) location where drones were seized or recovered (4) arrests or convictions resulting from illegal drugs being transported across the United States border via any type of drone (5) confirmed or suspected incidents where decoy drones were used to draw agents to a fake drug drop site.

The newly obtained records include a September 21, 2022, Customs and Border Protection “Significant Incident Report,” describing activity in New York:

At approximately 0200hrs on 09/21/22, Agents of [redacted] Station in conjunction with [redacted] were notified that [redacted] identified a DJI M300 drone originating in the United States had entered Canada. The drone landed and spent approximately 10 minutes in Canada. The drone returned to the United States to [redacted] NY where agents were waiting and observed the drone and an attached package, land in the back yard. Agents entered the property and encountered the drone pilot and an unknown number of additional subjects. At that time, all subjects fled the yard and entered the house. Agents in hot pursuit, entered the house and took the pilot into custody. An unknown number of subjects absconded from the house into the surrounding neighborhood and 2 additional subjects were later taken into custody. All subjects were identified as Chinese nationals, claiming U.S. citizenship. The house was cleared for potential people and no evidence was seized at that time. At this time, the house is secured pending a search warrant from federal district court to enter the residence and seize evidence. At this time, there is a potential to seize a house, 2 vehicles, the package of suspected narcotics, several drones and associated hardware and an unknown quantity of cash. The suspected narcotics were field tested using the [redacted] and tested positive for the properties of methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) with a weight of 3123 grams [6.88 lbs.].

An October 7, 2021, Customs and Border Protection “Evolving Situation Report” on “Drug Seizure” describes activity in California:

9:28 AM….

[A]t approximately 0840 hrs., a drone [redacted] made an incursion in [redacted] west of [redacted] POE [point of entry]. Agents on the ground observed the drone drop a white package as it hovered over a parking lot west of the [redacted] California POE, [redacted]….

12:29 At approximately 0850, agents on the ground were able to seize the drone along with a small package filled with a white powder substance at the following location [redacted]. 2 USC’s [likely referring to U.S. citizens] were arrested in connection with the drone and transported to [redacted]. Agents from [redacted] responded to interview the subjects. The white powder will be transported to the [redacted] checkpoint to be identified utilizing a [redacted] narcotics analyzer….

17:15 The white powder was tested and determined to be methamphetamine with a weight of .26 kilograms [over ½ lb] and a street value of $1500. The drone and meth have been transported to [redacted] and placed into the [redacted].

An April 29, 2020, Customs and Border Protection “Significant Incident Report” describes activity in Arizona:

[A]t approximately 1705 hours [redacted] Border Patrol Agents (BPAs) in the field notified the [redacted] Border Patrol Station Duty Desk [redacted] regarding a downed drone containing possible narcotics. Supervisory Boder Patrol Agents … arrived on scene and photographed the evidence. BPAs seized and transported the drone and possible narcotics to [redacted] Station. The Yuma Sector Evidence Team … was notified and responded to the [redacted] Station for testing and fingerprinting.

***

1854 hours: Narcotics tested positive for methamphetamine (462.82g) [over 1 lb].

A May 7, 2020, Customs and Border Protection “Significant Incident Report” states that, at approximately 2100 hours, Border Patrol agents report an abandoned drone near (redacted) Arizona, with two packages containing a white substance that tests positive for 727.2 grams, over 1 ½ lbs., of methamphetamine.

A June 26, 2020, Customs and Border Protection “Significant Incident Report” describes activity in Arizona. At approximately 0340 hours, (redacted) police department asks for assistance with a possible drone they found in a resident’s backyard. A Border Patrol agent responds and discovers a drone along with several packages that test positive for narcotics. The drone and narcotics are seized.

A September 7, 2021, Customs and Border Protection “Significant Incident Report” describes activity in Arizona. At approximately 0037 hours, a drone from Mexico is detected entering the United States near (redacted), Arizona. At 0136 hours the “DJI Inspire 2” drone is discovered on the ground and contraband is discovered attached to it. The contraband tests positive for 1.47689676 kgs, over 3 lbs., of methamphetamine.

An October 29, 2021, Customs and Border Protection “Significant Incident Report” describes activity in Arizona. At approximately 2030 hours, a Border Patrol agent detects a drone entering the United States (Arizona) from Mexico near (redacted). The agent is able to “mitigate the drone” and force it to land. Three kilograms, over six and one-half lbs., of heroin is attached to the bottom of the drone.

A September 2, 2021, Customs and Border Protection “Evolving Situation Report” regarding an “incursion” in California states:

[A]t approximately 10:21 p.m., the [redacted] Border Patrol Station is notified by the San Diego Sector [redacted] of a possible drone incursion … [originating] in an area of Mexico … The possible drone then promptly returned to Mexico … The drone made a second incursion from the same location and proceeded to the drop location. A white Chevrolet Equinox arrived at the location of the drop … Agents followed the Equinox … where it was traffic stopped by [redacted] officers. Seven bricks of an unknown substance consistent [with] cocaine and two Tupperware containers of pills consistent [with] Fentanyl [were seized].

In an April 12, 2022, Corruption Chronicles report, Judicial Watch detailed how Mexican drug cartels conducted more than 9,000 drone flights into U.S. airspace in the previous year to surveil American law enforcement and security operations in the southern border region.

A senior Homeland Security official told Judicial Watch the drones are observing federal, state, county, and city agencies near the Mexican border, including the U.S. Border Patrol, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas National Guard, county sheriffs and local police. The Border Patrol, which operates under Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has captured about a dozen of the drones, and accessed the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAVs) guidance and memory systems to gain intelligence information, according to a high-level official at the agency.

Judicial Watch learned about the Mexican cartel drone incursions during a visit to the southern border and specifically while interviewing federal officials at the Customs and Border Protection Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas.

Judicial Watch Sues for Records on Garland-Milley Meeting about Trump

In his book released in October 2024, journalist Bob Woodward wrote that in early 2021, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley met for lunch at the Department of Justice during which they discussed President Trump. Milley is alleged to have pressured Garland to target “far-right” militia movements Woodward described the meeting as “highly unusual, if not unprecedented.”

To reveal more about this, we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for records regarding the meeting (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense (No. 1:25-cv-01330)).

We sued after  the Defense Department failed to respond to a February 10, 2025, FOIA request for:

Records and communications including emails, email chains, email attachments, text message meeting minutes, outlook calendars, voice recordings, video recordings, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, letters, reports, briefings, cables, presentations, notes, or other form of record, regarding a meeting between Merrick Garland, Attorney General, DOJ, and General Mark Alexander Milley, former, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, concerning:

(1) President or former President Donald J. Trump

(2) Domestic Violent Extremism

(3) Far-right Militia Movements.

General Milley is a seditionist – and abusing his office to target President Trump and millions of Americans was par for the course. Defense Secretary Hegseth should order immediate transparency and release of the documents about General Milley.

(In December 2024, we sued the Justice Department for records on the 2021 meeting between Garland and Milley.

In February 2025, we sued the Defense Department for information about two conference calls involving Milley with the Justice Department, Interior and Homeland Security regarding coordination for the January 6, 2021, election certification.

In December 2021, we sued the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for records of communications and meetings between then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and Milley, who reportedly had at least one conversation in which President Trump was attacked as being part of a “coup.”)

Court Hearing Set in Judicial Watch Civil Rights Lawsuit against Reparations Program 

The Judicial Watch legal team will be in court on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, for a hearing in our class action civil rights lawsuit against Evanston, Illinois, on behalf of six individuals over the city’s reparations program (Flinn et al. v Evanston (No. 1:24-cv-04269)).

The court ordered the in-person hearing for oral argument on Evanston’s pending motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit over the city’s use of race as an eligibility requirement for a reparations program, which makes $25,000 direct cash payments to black residents and descendants of black residents who lived in Evanston between the years 1919 and 1969.

We allege that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In response to the city’s motion to dismiss, we argue that the case should continue to go forward because:

[T]he program’s use of a race-based eligibility requirement is presumptively unconstitutional, and remedying societal discrimination is not a compelling government interest. Nor has remedying discrimination from as many as 105 years ago or remedying intergenerational discrimination ever been recognized as a compelling government interest. Among the program’s other fatal flaws is that it uses race as a proxy for discrimination without requiring proof of discrimination.

It should go without saying that Evanston’s reparations program is clearly discriminatory and unconstitutional. Our class action lawsuit should proceed.

Our lawsuits challenging unconstitutional discrimination are extensive.

On January 29, 2024, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of San Francisco taxpayers over a city program that discriminates in favor of biological black and Latino men who identify as women in the distribution of tax money. The lawsuit was filed after we earlier forced the release of records from the City of San Francisco showing the city prioritized tax money for black and Latino transgenders (biological men) in the Guaranteed Income for Trans People program. The City of San Francisco, in a 7-3 vote by the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, authorized a settlement agreement. The agreement committed the city to pay $3,250 in attorney’s fees and costs and not to create a new guaranteed income program with the same eligibility criteria.

In August 2022, we sued Minneapolis Public Schools on behalf of a Minneapolis taxpayer over a teachers’ contract that provided discriminatory job protections to certain racial minorities to proceed. In January 2025, the Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed our lawsuit for a lack of standing without deciding whether the racially discriminatory teachers’ contract was unconstitutional.

The City of Asheville, NC, in January 2022, settled our federal civil rights lawsuit after agreeing to remove all racially discriminatory provisions in a city-funded scholarship program. Additionally, the city also agreed to remove racially discriminatory eligibility provisions in a related program that provides grants to educators.

In May 2022, we won a court battle against California’s gender quota law for corporate boards. The verdict came after a 28-day trial. The verdict followed a similar ruling in our favor the previous month, finding California’s race, ethnicity, and LGBT quotas on corporate boards unconstitutional.

Check back here for updates on our major “reparations” lawsuit!

Until next week,