WASHINGTON — Confusion reigned Wednesday after the Federal Aviation Administration abruptly announced a 10-day closure of airspace over El Paso, Texas for “special security reasons” — only to reopen the skies fewer than eight hours later.

The shutdown of airspace over El Paso highlights the still vexing nature of drone threats over the United States.

U.S. officials say they have seized thousands of pounds of drugs flown in by drones over the border. Mexican officials have downplayed the threat.

The Federal Aviation Administration has halted all flights into and out of El Paso until very late on Feb. 20 for what it calls "special security reasons."

ICE and Border Patrol close sophisticated La Nueva Empresa cartel tunnel under Rio Grande connecting Juárez to El Paso.

About 137,000 .50-caliber rounds have been seized since 2012, and of those, 47 percent came from a plant in Kansas City, Mo., Mexico’s defense secretary said.

Mexican authorities arrested alleged Sinaloa Cartel fentanyl producer Ivan Valerio Sainz Salazar, who is accused of supplying deadly pills to the Chapitos faction.

Mexico has sought Damaso Lopez Serrano’s extradition since 2020, charging him with ordering the killing of Javier Valdez, an award-winning journalist in Mexico who covered the drug trade in Culiacán.

A federal grand jury in Lafayette has indicted 11 alleged member of a drug trafficking organization for various drug-related charges.