Mexican authorities have released photographs of commercial drones armed with improvised explosives caught among cartel members in the central Mexican town of Guanajunto. The improvised explosive was attached to the drone via a string that allows it to be carried to an objective and then remotely detonated, blowing up the drone itself (instead of releasing the device like we are seeing in Syria with some cases).

Small Wars Journal calls this episode a “Firebreak” of sorts, because the technology and TTPs are jumping from one locale to another. Most recently in the news we heard about the so-called Islamic State weaponizing drones with IEDs and flying them into targets. But if we dig deeper, U.S. companies have come up with much more advanced technology but essentially the same concept of flying a remotely controlled drone into a very specified target. The Syrian Arab Army was attempting the same techniques in 2015, which probably later directly contributed to what the so-called Islamic State decided to do.

Any way we cut this, it appears that drone technology is certainly here to stay and will become a part of criminal, military, and terrorist TTPs for at least the next several decades to come.