Images emerged on this week showing Mexican hitmen flaunting massive guns. People online compared the guns to a weapon in , and there's a chilling reason why hitmen from Mexico's biggest cartels - the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel - are arming themselves with them. The weapons are C-UAS guns – used by militaries across the world to take out drones – and are a response to cartels' increasing use of weaponized drones as they fight for control of the drugs trade. Experts say the CJNG were the innovators in this regard, and started weaponizing drones as early as 2017. The Sinaloans soon followed suit and now the cartels have units of hitmen dedicated to drone warfare, strapping bombs to the devices and flying them at targets. Security expert Dr Robert J Bunker, director of research and analysis at , told the Daily Star cartels use weaponized drones for four reasons. Firstly, he explained how the devices allow for "precision targeting of opposing cartel and governmental personnel". He said the gangs now have access to "night vision and FPV (First Person View)" technology to go with their flying bombs, giving them a "high-tech stand off attack capability" despite "using cheap commercial drones". Secondly, Dr Bunker said cartels now have a blitz-like "aerial bombardment capability". He explained: "[This] can be used to terrorise villages and force the locals to flee. This allows buffer zones to be created and/or the capture of key terrain." Drones are also being used to create cartel "propaganda videos", and for "ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) missions". In this regard, Dr Bunker explained the CJNG uses drones to support hitmen travelling in "improvised armoured fighting vehicles" (also known as 'narco tanks'). Using drones in all of these ways should help limit a cartel's "personnel and equipment/vehicle losses in an attack", Dr Bunker said. He added: "Hence, why we are now seeing CJNG (and one would expect CDS; Sinaloa) begin using anti-drone weapons. A cartel would want to negate the advantages such drones provide to their rivals."