Costa Maya, Q.R. — The Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) has identified five places in the south of the state for their location of clandestine runways.
Narciso Nájera Valadez, Commander of the 7th Regimiento de Caballería Motorizada, says the areas are under constant surveillance. He says the southern zone has been part of the organized crime route for several years with drug planes landing in the municipalities of Bacalar and Othón P. Blanco since 2021.
Valadez says that now that the illegal landing strips are being monitored, they are not used.
“There is nowhere for them to land because we have covered nearly the entire southern zone of Quintana Roo. So far, since I have been here, none have landed. We have located those that are already formally located in Mahahual, Pulticub and Kohunlich,” he said.
Regardless of these known illegal landing strips, he admitted that any open flat surface is suitable for landing a drug plane, especially since the planes are abandoned once the drugs have been unloaded.
While there is a constant monitoring operation in the southern zone for the landing of illegal planes, they also maintain surveillance through the Integral Air Surveillance System (SIVA), which is the technology used to detect illegal aircraft via satellite.
He reported that using the Air Surveillance System, they have detected several planes passing over that have landed in Belize and Guatemala.
