Judicial buildings in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, a key crossing point to the United States and for drug trafficking, were attacked with drones, the prosecutor of the Mexican state of Baja California (northeast) said Thursday.

The drones dropped explosives made of nails, marbles and metal that caused only material damage, damaging a few vehicles in the courtyard of the courthouse, prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade told reporters.

Tijuana is a major transit city to the United States for people and goods, where in June Mexican authorities discovered a tunnel used to transport drugs into Mexico.

"In the offices of our anti-kidnapping prosecutor's office, we heard what looked like gunshots," which were actually "explosives launched by a drone," described María Elena Andrade.

Earlier in the day, the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana reported explosions in the area and urged its citizens to stay away.

In September, vehicles parked at the Tijuana and Ensenada prosecutor's offices were attacked with Molotov cocktails. More recently, a prosecutor's office agent assigned to the municipality of Playas de Rosarito was murdered on Friday.

Organized crime in Mexico is increasingly using drones to attack rivals or authorities.

The powerful Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) cartel has been using these devices since at least 2020 and even has a division dedicated specifically to the use of these drones launching homemade explosives, according to a report by Insight Crime.

Their use has been observed mainly in the states of Michoacán and Guerrero, located on the Pacific coast, as well as in Guanajuato (center).