Rubio warns Mexican cartel drone use is a growing | Political News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the first time since the U.S. went to warfare with Iran three months in the past.

Rubio appeared before the panel to argue for the State Department’s funds and to reply questions from Committee members about the state of negotiations with Iran after they seemingly hit a roadblock. During his listening to, Rubio issued a stark warning about Mexican drones.

“It’s not an Iran challenge. This is a global challenge,” Rubio told the committee during his listening to on Tuesday. “And it is taking part in out every single day around the world.”

“I mean, Mexican cartels are using UAVs against each other,” he claimed. “And we should imagine at some point may even use it against our own, against our interests.”

According to Rubio, “this is a pervasive problem around the world.” The Trump official concluded his remarks by saying “the economics of it are something we have to solve for.”

Rubio’s feedback come after the U.S. Military destroyed a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the jap Pacific Ocean, ensuing in two fatalities and one survivor last week. Footage launched on social media by U.S. Southern Command depicts a darkish, boat-shaped object before what seems to be like an explosion, adopted by flames erupting from the water.

Southern Command reported that it “immediately notified the U.S. Coast Guard to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivor.” According to studies, President Trump authorised a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy on Wednesday, which the White House announced prioritizes the elimination of drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere as the administration’s top goal.

Since early September, the Trump administration’s marketing campaign of destroying suspected drug-trafficking boats in Latin American waters, spanning the jap Pacific and Caribbean Sea, has resulted in at least 193 deaths general. The army has not introduced evidence confirming that any of the focused vessels have been transporting medicine. These strikes have intensified again in latest weeks.

Simultaneously, Trump has been pushing regional leaders to improve cooperation with the U.S. in focusing on cartels and conducting their own army operations against drug traffickers and transnational gangs, which he characterizes as an “unacceptable threat” to hemispheric national security. Critics have raised considerations about the legality of the boat strikes.

While the administration maintains the boat strikes have been efficient in stopping unlawful drug trafficking, some law-of-war specialists argue the assaults breach worldwide law. The U.S. has been placing suspected smuggling vessels since September last yr, with President Donald Trump‘s administration claiming its goal is to remove “narco-terrorists” working in Latin America, though no conclusive evidence has been introduced that the focused vessels are literally concerned in drug trafficking.

Since September 2025, the U.S. army has performed a dozen strikes and studies killing over 150 “narco-terrorists” in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since late last summer time.