A planned U.S. purchase of digital forensics tools could help investigators use recovered cartel drones’ flight logs and footage to identify operators.
The United States is preparing to acquire digital forensics tools that could help investigators trace recovered cartel drones to their operators. The approach would use information stored inside the aircraft, including flight histories and camera footage, to reconstruct their movements and develop investigative leads.
The State Department project reportedly includes two licenses for Disero, software developed by V2 Forensics, for fixed and mobile equipment used by the FBI’s Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center, known as TEDAC. The licenses would last two years. Tools from Cellebrite, Graykey and MSAB would also support the examination of digital devices.
Although the document describes the purchase as benefiting Mexico, Milenio reports that the U.S. government would receive the equipment. The listed recipients are CBP-CAMDEX and two FBI-TEDAC units. The arrangement does not establish that the tools would be handed directly to Mexican agencies.
V2 Forensics describes Disero as capable of extracting, decrypting and interpreting drone flight logs. Those are the manufacturer’s stated capabilities; identifying an operator would still require investigators to connect the recovered information with other evidence.
Two U.S. prosecutions illustrate how that process can work. In California, Jorge Narvaez used a drone to deliver methamphetamine into North Kern State Prison on June 9, 2024. A second attempted delivery ended when the aircraft crashed nearby. Investigators recovered footage from its camera showing the operator, whom they identified as Narvaez. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March 2026 to 12 years and seven months in prison, according to the Justice Department.
In Texas, investigators recovered 70 usable flight logs from a drone that crashed at a federal prison. Records of its location, altitude, speed and flight times revealed trips over facilities in Fort Worth and Seagoville. Investigators compared those movements with cellphone records, helping connect the flights to Bryant LeRay Henderson, who pleaded guilty in October 2022 to attempting to provide contraband to a prisoner.
Those cases show how a recovered drone can become evidence against the person operating it. The Mexico-related project seeks to strengthen that investigative capacity, but the reported procurement should not be confused with a completed deployment: the reviewed sources do not confirm delivery of the licenses or identify any cartel arrests resulting from their use.
