Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG)

Let’s start with the obvious: the guy in the photo is holding a commercial off-the-shelf counter UAS jammer. Something you’d typically expect to see issued to a low-tier force element overseas. Except this isn’t Ukraine. This isn’t Syria. This isn’t a PMC in Libya. This is on our southern border. That photo was taken in Mexico, and the individual wielding that piece of tech isn’t a soldier. He’s a cartel operative, likely part of CJNG’s Grupo Élite or a subordinate cell, and that counter-drone capability is just one layer of what’s become a far more sophisticated EW/ISR ecosystem than most people realize.

The biggest mistake in the national security and defense space is treating this kind of development as Mexico’s problem. It’s not. It hasn’t been for years. The cartels aren’t just fighting for drug routes. They’re fighting for control of information, terrain, logistics, and the electromagnetic spectrum. They’re adopting and adapting TTPs at a pace that rivals near-peer adversaries.

That counter-UAS jammer isn’t an outlier. It’s part of a deliberate evolution. CJNG has institutionalized the use of drones across ISR and kinetic roles. They’re using GPS spoofing, encrypted comms, drone signal relays, and in some cases hijacking drone feeds from Mexican state forces. They’ve deployed first-person-view kamikaze drones with IEDs strapped underneath. C4 encased in PVC, ball bearings for shrapnel, remote detonation triggered via FPV goggles linked to the drone’s onboard camera. They've rigged DJI Matrice 600s with makeshift hardpoints, run clustered drone salvos to overwhelm defenses, and layered them with real-time ISR to coordinate ground movement.

In regions like Aguililla and Tepalcatepec, they've dropped airburst explosives from quadcopters to flush out rival positions. They've used drones to direct fire from entrenched positions, operating out of ranch compounds turned forward operating bases. And they’re running comms redundancy on private encrypted VHF networks backed up by consumer-grade digital mesh systems.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s active. It’s happening in places like Michoacán, Zacatecas, Guerrero, and Guanajuato. CJNG is executing synchronized kinetic pushes supported by a digital backbone. They’re running low-SWaP jammers to disrupt the RF control of law enforcement drones. They’re spoofing GPS signals to confuse ISR systems. They've even experimented with rolling out handheld SIGINT collection tools to geolocate rival radio nodes and coordinate mortar-style indirect fire attacks.

They aren’t just using "monstrous" for intimidation anymore. They're stacking them in armored convoys, pushing into contested municipalities with FPV drone overwatch, flanking patrol routes, and executing layered assaults. Several "monstrous" now feature slat armor grills on top. Jury-rigged Cope cages to prematurely detonate drone-dropped IEDs. The same logic applied to Russian tanks in Ukraine.

CJNG is adapting. They're using code words and burner comms to segment tactical cells. They’ve employed commercial radio repeaters in mountain terrain to create overlapping radio coverage zones across entire municipalities. Their operators rotate frequencies, use rotating call signs, and have even experimented with frequency-hopping radios and encrypted P25 standard networks.

And they don’t just stop with hardware. They’ve studied narrative warfare. Their video propaganda isn’t just flexing. It’s recruitment, deterrence, and misdirection. Every time a convoy video drops, it’s not just a show of force. It’s a timestamped, geotagged declaration of ownership. A way to stake a claim without firing a shot.

Just like in Ukraine, they’re applying a layered doctrine. Drones for overwatch. IEDs for denial. Jammers for EW superiority. Armored mobile platforms for kinetic push. Encrypted networks to command and control it all. They’re exploiting the seams in Mexico’s fragmented security infrastructure. And they’re running multi-domain playbooks that resemble hybrid warfare far more than organized crime.

This is what low-intensity insurgency looks like when fused with a transnational criminal enterprise. And the lines are blurring fast. Anyone thinking this is just Mexico’s problem is ignoring the reality that every one of these tools, drones, IEDs, armored trucks, jammers, encrypted radios, has shown up in U.S. law enforcement seizures within 200 miles of the border.

The picture isn’t a curiosity. It’s a warning. For the EW, ISR, and national security communities, it's a signal that the doctrine of tomorrow is already being field-tested today. The gap between what we think of as military capability and what non-state actors can bring to a fight is gone. The terrain may be different, but the tools and intent are starting to look the same.

CJNG knows how to fight in the gaps. And unless this is treated with the seriousness and granularity it deserves, we will continue to be three steps behind a threat that already thinks in multi-domain terms.

So the next time someone tells you that this kind of tech or doctrine is limited to great power competition or peer-state warfare, show them that photo. Remind them that EW is borderless. ISR is borderless. And CJNG? They’ve already figured that out.