The US military has significantly increased its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels over the past two weeks, with sophisticated spy planes flying at least 18 missions over the southwestern US and in international airspace around the Baja peninsula,

Mexico’s Defense Department has acknowledged authorizing two Pentagon reconnaissance missions since Trump took office but has left open the question of whether the aircraft were involved in espionage

Some of the US’s most sophisticated spy planes that typically monitor the Chinese and Russians are now flooding the air targeting Mexican drug cartels as part of President Trump’s crackdown, a new report says.