Cartel suspected in drone attack on Mexican Prosecutor’s Office near US border

A Mexican crime group launched a makeshift drone attack on the state attorney general's offices in the northern border city of Tijuana, just across from California, Mexican authorities confirmed.

The crude improvised explosive device, which contained nails and pieces of metal, struck outside the office of the attorney general's anti-kidnapping unit, damaging some cars but causing no deaths or injuries, the Baja California state Attorney General Maria Elena Andrade said, Reuters reports.

Andrade said that a large organized crime group was behind the attack, but declined to name it.

On October 15, the US Consulate in Tijuana issued a security alert over the attack.

In September, assailants threw Molotov cocktails at vehicles at the prosecutor's offices in Tijuana and Ensenada, another city in Baja California.

Some attacks on judicial officials in Mexico have been deadly. Last week, a prosecution official in Playas de Rosarito, just south of Tijuana, was gunned down.

Cartels and other criminal organizations in Mexico have increasingly used drones in attacks against rival groups or authorities.

In 2024, officials said an alleged cartel attack using drones in southern Mexico killed at least six people and injured 13 others.

According to the US-based InSight Crime think tank, the powerful Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel has used explosive drones at least since 2020.

In 2023, the Mexican army said that drug cartels have increased their use of roadside bombs or improvised explosive devices — especially bomb-dropping drones.

By Vafa Guliyeva