Table of Contents
- Border Security and Illegal Migration: High-Tech Surveillance and Intelligence Fusion
- Combating Drug Trafficking and Cartels with OSINT & AI
- From Investigation to Courtroom: OSINT and AI in Federal Courts
- Conclusion
While long a tool among U.S. law enforcement agencies, open-source intelligence (OSINT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming indispensable in U.S. law enforcement operations and federal courtrooms. OSINT and AI in U.S. law enforcement are evolving in tandem with current enforcement priorities—border security, combating drug trafficking such as the fentanyl epidemic, curbing illegal migration, and targeting transnational criminal groups. Under the renewed Trump administration in 2025, these priorities have intensified, bringing OSINT and AI to the forefront as key tools for identifying and gathering evidence, generating leads, making critical connections at speed and scale, and informing decisions.
Law enforcement agencies are leveraging the vast amounts of publicly available data—from social media posts to satellite imagery—with AI algorithms to process information at speeds and scales previously unimaginable. It’s estimated that 80–90% of intelligence activities in Western law enforcement now involve OSINT. This trend raises the stakes for ensuring that insights drawn from open sources are actionable and admissible in court.
Border Security and Illegal Migration: High-Tech Surveillance and Intelligence Fusion
Securing the U.S. southern border has been a top priority, with the Trump administration declaring a national emergency on day one and rapidly rolling out security measures. Alongside physical barriers and stricter policies, there’s a push for technology-driven solutions.
Congress is actively exploring ways to accelerate the use of AI and emerging tech for border security, cutting through red tape so agencies like DHS can deploy cutting-edge tools faster. AI-enhanced OSINT is playing an ever larger role in this domain. The House bill reintroduced in early 2025 would require DHS to study and pilot AI solutions—from surveillance towers to data analytics—along the border, dovetailing with President Trump’s executive orders on securing the nation’s borders.
On the ground, agencies are already using AI-assisted OSINT to detect and intercept threats. For example, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employs AI to sift through data from radar, sensors, and cameras in real time, helping agents spot suspicious activities along the border that the human eye might miss. By integrating AI with OSINT monitoring, border officials can analyze social media chatter, messaging apps, and open web data to identify human smuggling operations or migrant caravan movements before they reach the border.
OSINT has become an intelligence discipline of first resort for investigations involving people and goods crossing borders. AI tools can rapidly triage huge volumes of open-source information—shortening the time-to-insight so agents can act on leads faster.
Recent developments show the real-world impact of OSINT and AI on border security. In July 2024, an extensive intelligence operation leveraging both human and open sources led to the dramatic arrest of Sinaloa Cartel leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García and Joaquín Guzmán López in El Paso, Texas. These high-profile cartel figures, long involved in cross-border drug smuggling, were lured into a trap and detained after landing at a private airfield—a major victory against a top transnational threat.
Industry experts noted that advanced OSINT analytics likely played a supporting role in this success, helping authorities map cartel communications and movements. Such enhanced intelligence efforts have already yielded record fentanyl seizures, according to CBP leadership. The Department of Homeland Security’s AI Use Case Inventory (2024) highlights dozens of AI deployments aimed at border and immigration challenges—from screening cargo and validating identities to analyzing data for visa fraud detection.
OSINT is also informing the response to illegal migration beyond just intercepting border crossings. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) analysts use OSINT platforms to understand the root causes of migration surges, such as tracking gang violence and instability in countries like El Salvador and Honduras that push migrants north. By monitoring social media and news from those regions, agents can anticipate migration waves and even identify recruitment by smuggling networks. Intelligence fusion approaches—combining satellite imagery, social media, economic data, and news—are now applied to predict migration trends in near real time.
This multifaceted fusion of OSINT sources lets authorities spot early indicators of migration crises, such as spikes in online discussions about food shortages or conflict, and prepare accordingly. Such insights can guide more proactive border deployments and humanitarian responses, rather than reacting only after large groups arrive at the border.
Meanwhile, human traffickers and smugglers increasingly exploit online platforms to lure victims and coordinate illicit travel. Here, OSINT and AI provide crucial defensive tools. Investigators now routinely scan for red-flag keywords in online job ads or social posts—terms known to be used by traffickers to entice vulnerable people such as promises of daily payments. AI can automatically flag these patterns across countless ads and forums, helping agents uncover trafficking rings that operate via surface web and dark web channels. A Customs and Border Protection analyst might use such tools to pinpoint suspicious ads for “massage therapy” businesses that actually serve as fronts for smuggling or prostitution networks. By connecting these OSINT dots—from dubious advertisements to known hubs of illicit activity—law enforcement can intervene earlier to rescue victims and arrest perpetrators.
Combating Drug Trafficking and Cartels with OSINT & AI
The fight against drug trafficking, particularly the fentanyl crisis, is another area where OSINT and AI are making a difference. Mexican cartels like Sinaloa and Jalisco have fueled the U.S. fentanyl epidemic by flooding supply lines with lethal opioids. In response, the U.S. government has escalated its approach—designating these cartels and other transnational gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) in early 2025. This unprecedented move aims to curb cartel influence and illicit drug flows by unlocking harsher sanctions and expanded investigative powers.
Cartel networks don’t just destabilize regions—they also entrench corruption and spur migration crises, showing the broad impact of cartel-driven trafficking. Confronting such adaptive, globalized criminal enterprises requires more than traditional interdiction; it demands a data-driven intelligence approach that fuses geospatial analysis, OSINT, and AI.
OSINT and AI are now at the heart of counternarcotics strategy, helping agencies like the DEA and FBI track shifting fentanyl supply chains in response to China’s regulatory crackdown. While China was once the primary supplier of precursor chemicals, increased cooperation between Beijing and Washington has led to tighter export controls and law enforcement actions against rogue chemical manufacturers. However, cartels have adapted by diversifying their sources, acquiring precursor chemicals from India, Turkey, Germany, and even the United States—countries with looser regulations or enforcement gaps. OSINT tools continue to play a crucial role in mapping these evolving supply routes, monitoring darknet marketplaces, shipping records, and trade data to detect new suppliers. Investigators have already uncovered chemical brokers operating out of India and Germany, where key fentanyl precursors remain unregulated or weakly monitored, allowing traffickers to pivot their operations and exploit legal loopholes.
Intelligence-driven enforcement has produced measurable results. In 2023, U.S. authorities leveraged OSINT-enhanced supply chain mapping to disrupt major fentanyl trafficking rings, seizing 77 million pills and 12,000 pounds of powder—enough to kill every American. Many of these seizures were informed by geospatial analysis and AI-driven trend detection, which helped pinpoint cartel adaptations in real time. For example, by tracking chemical shipments from Turkey and India into Mexico, analysts identified new smuggling chokepoints and transit routes, allowing law enforcement to proactively intercept precursor deliveries before they reached cartel-run superlabs. As synthetic drug networks grow more decentralized and adaptive, the fusion of OSINT, AI, and global trade intelligence will be critical for staying ahead of these shifting threats.
The challenges of securing strategic waterways are inextricably linked to those unfolding on land. The same transnational criminal networks trafficking fentanyl, precursor chemicals, and illicit goods across borders also exploit maritime routes to move massive drug shipments undetected. Cartels have evolved their tactics, using semi-submersibles, go-fast boats, and even commercial vessels to ferry narcotics across the Caribbean, Eastern Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, foreign adversaries leverage IUU fishing and illicit maritime activities to challenge regional stability. Just as OSINT and AI are revolutionizing law enforcement on land—tracking drug supply chains and identifying trafficking networks—they are also becoming essential tools in maritime security, enabling authorities to predict, detect, and disrupt threats before they reach U.S. shores.
From Investigation to Courtroom: OSINT and AI in Federal Courts
As law enforcement leans on OSINT and AI for investigations, U.S. federal courts are grappling with how to handle this new breed of evidence. Digital breadcrumbs from social media, smartphones, and open databases are increasingly featured in prosecutions—but they must be authenticated and presented properly to hold up in court. Legal experts emphasize that procedures need to be in place to guarantee OSINT data is admissible. This means investigators can’t just scrape the web for incriminating info; they must preserve and document how it was obtained, ensuring it meets standards against hearsay or tampering. Courts are getting more familiar with OSINT-derived evidence, from geolocation tags on photos to publicly available surveillance video. In many cases, OSINT is used to corroborate other evidence or to identify suspects who might otherwise remain anonymous.
Beyond images and video, AI is starting to influence court proceedings in novel ways. For instance, the surge of generative AI tools has introduced questions about AI-generated content as evidence. A recent federal ruling suggested that AI outputs and prompts used in investigations are discoverable in litigation, meaning if the government used an AI system like a chatbot or an image enhancer to generate investigative leads, those prompts/outputs might need to be shared with defense. Courts are still finding their footing here—weighing issues of reliability and bias for algorithm-assisted evidence. In one high-profile 2024 case, a judge examined whether an AI-based facial recognition match could be solely relied upon for an arrest; such instances underscore the need for explainable AI in law enforcement to avoid wrongful accusations. Judges have also noted the risk of deepfakes and doctored media, which require AI tools to authenticate. Moving forward, we may see standardized guidelines on how AI-derived analyses can be introduced in court, and how opposing counsel can probe those methods.
Conclusion
OSINT and AI are revolutionizing the way U.S. law enforcement operates—from identifying cross-border threats to delivering courtroom-ready evidence. As agencies face increasingly complex challenges in border security, drug trafficking, and illegal migration, the need for unclassified, fully sourced, and legally compliant intelligence has never been greater. The integration of OSINT and AI not only accelerates investigations but also ensures that every piece of evidence stands up to rigorous legal scrutiny, thereby enhancing both operational efficiency and judicial outcomes.
3GIMBALS’ OMEN™ and OMEN™ EKG solutions exemplify the future of intelligence-driven law enforcement. By harnessing AI-driven insights combined with meticulous OSINT tradecraft, 3GIMBALS provides data that is fully sourced, admissible in court, and easily shareable between U.S. and allied agencies. By delivering actionable, unclassified intelligence that adheres to strict legal standards, OMEN™ and OMEN™ EKG empower law enforcement to preempt threats, streamline investigations, and safeguard our borders with confidence. Embracing these cutting-edge tools is essential for ensuring that our security apparatus remains agile, accountable, and ahead of emerging challenges.
