Source: Fox News · 2026-09-26 · Original article ↗

WATCH: DHS issues stark warning after 300 'hostile' cartel drones detected at southern border

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Three hundred seventy-eight cartel drones in one month. Seventy-five turned back. One captured.

Summary

  • Fox News, citing the Department of War, reports 378 cartel drones were detected at the southern border between Aug. 22 and Thursday. Of those, 75 were turned back, 15 were engaged, and one was captured.
  • Fox previously reported Joint Task Force Southern Border took down approximately 100 suspected cartel drones in August alone. DHS posted that hostile surveillance of American personnel ends here and told cartels their drones are failing.
  • Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Jeffrey Stalnaker told Fox cartels now use drones for reconnaissance during drug and human smuggling instead of sending lookouts, watching when soldiers and agents enter the field so they can move people north between ports of entry.
  • Officials said lethal cartel drones have not yet been encountered at the border. For three weeks the U.S. military has run anti-drone exercises in the desert outside Yuma, Arizona. Brig. Gen. Jason Rueschhoff said capability is being built at a pace that stays ahead of the enemy.

Commentary

A ranch dad still locks a cattle gate after a diesel night and knows a sky over the river is supposed to mean weather, not a cartel camera counting his headlights. He did not pay the levy so a plastic wing could time the next load between the ports.

378 detected. 75 turned. 15 engaged. 1 captured. One month of counts, and the vinyl chair in that Yuma trailer still holds the honest household that already bought the fence.

Look every working father who still walks a dark berm after second shift in the eye and answer this: if 378 hostile birds already crossed that month, who still owns the next hour of sky the lookout no longer has to walk?

Comments

If 378 cartel drones already crossed in one month, who still owns the next hour of border sky?
u/border_dad · 5h

378 detected. 75 turned. 15 engaged. 1 captured. Keep those four stamps.

u/midwest_vet · 4h

I stood a berm so a sky still meant weather. A recon bird is not a weather report.

u/rule_first · 4h

Aug. 22 to Thursday. Joint Task Force. Yuma exercises. Print the three.

u/tokyo_ally · 3h

Allied rivers still treat a hostile drone as a breach, not a hobby kit.

u/docket_rat · 3h

Stalnaker: recon, not lookouts. File the shift from boots to rotors.

u/night_shift · 2h

I still smell motor oil at 2 a.m. I want the next plastic wing empty of a load.

u/texas_mom · 90m

A camera over the berm is not a vibe. It is a warning the street already paid.

u/gulf_watch · 55m

A 378-count month next to a Yuma test range is a second border around every honest ranch.

u/press_clip · 30m

Fox printed 378, 75, and one capture. Argue those nouns.

u/soc_lead · 15m

Hold the takedowns. Keep the Yuma kit. A cartel bird is not a souvenir.

Paraphrased comments. Not attributed.

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