Mexico’s fastest growing drug cartel has developed drones laden with C4 explosives in the latest sign the country is losing control of an escalating cartel warfare. Fears are growing that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) are morphing into narco terrorism as Mexico deals with a bloody battle for territory and drug supply routes into the US. Mexico’s General Attorney’s Office reported finding drones and the components needed to weaponise them during a search and seizure operation, and is now pursuing terrorism charges against the fast rising CJNG. CJNG split off from the Sinaloa Cartel, belonging to now-US prisoner Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, around 2010, and today it has expanded its territorial control over nearly the entire country in an escalating wave of violence with rival organisations. While both Mexico and the United States have actively arrested and extradited hundreds of cartel members and leaders, over the years the strategy has only caused cartels to fragment and regroup in new, often more violent, organisations. El Chapo, who famously broke out of prison twice, on Saturday appealed against his life sentence handed down a year ago by a US court for trafficking hundreds of tons of narcotics into the country. The end of El Chapo far from spelled the end of cartel violence in Mexico.
