Mexican Cartels have gotten creative with smuggling operations, deploying drones to fly over the border and drop illegal drugs into neighboring El Paso.

Law enforcement officials in Mexico announced Thursday that officers had downed several of the unmanned aircraft in the mountainous region of Chihuahua state, which lies along the border of Texas and New Mexico, according to Border Report. 

Chihuahua Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya told reporters on Thursday that the takedown was part of efforts being made to prevent drug trafficking to America from Mexico’s “Golden Triangle” of drug production. Mr. Loya said the drones were launched from La Equis — The X — a monument erected at Juarez to symbolize the deaths from ongoing drug wars in the region.

“In the area of the (Big Red X) monument, they have been using drones to cross packages of drugs and drop them off on the other side,” he told reporters.

The monument is in the city’s Plaza de la Mexicanidad and lies only 100 yards south of the Rio Grande. The plaza has long been used as a landmark for migrants seeking to turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol Agents for asylum. The 200-foot-tall art installation can be seen across the river from El Paso.

U.S. officials confirmed to Border Report that they have also prevented drones from carrying drugs into Texas and New Mexico but stopped short of saying how many or what kind of drugs were being transported. 

Mr. Loya also said during Thursday’s press conference that the cartels have been using the drones to monitor police activity on both sides of the border while smuggling people across.

“We have seen that they are using drones to monitor Border Patrol officials, and they are using the drones as a guide to caravan the migrants into the United States,” he said.

Chihuahua state police will start working with the Mexican military to expand the hunt for cartel drones before the cross into America.