The United States is hunting for fentanyl labs in Mexico. These buildings can be found pretty easily since they produce chemicals that are easy to spot from the air. It’s a part of Trump’s plan to combat drug cartels.

President Trump and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, want to put more effort into the covert program, which had started under Biden’s presidency. For example, they are increasing the number of drone flights over Mexico to spy on the drug cartels.

For the moment, Nothern Command has done about two dozen supervision flights over the Mexican border using many different aircrafts like U-2s, RC-135 Rivet Joints, P-8s and drones.

South of the US border, on February 17, the Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, said that the drone flights are requested by her government and as a collaboration with the U.S government. “These flights are part of the coordination … collaborations that have been going on for many years, between the United States government and the Mexican government,” Sheinbaum mentioned in a press briefing. According to her, this kind of information is shared with Mexican authorities.

Two weeks ago, the head of the Northern Command, General Gregory M. Guillot told to the Senate that the analysts are providing the information received. They provide intelligence that, ”gets after the cartel networks that drive the production and distribution of fentanyl and pushes it across the border”, said the General. According to General Guillot, the information collected was shared with the Mexican authorities to help them fight against the cartel by sending more troops.

To address Trump’s administration, the Mexican government has taken steps regarding its fentanyl concerns. They sent 10,000 troops to the border to combat smuggling. Despite these efforts, the Trump administration wants Mexico to push even harder to dismantle the fentanyl labs.

In this case, the CIA is transferring the information to Congress and possibly to Mexican authorities as well.