Palos Blancos Airport

Forcible closure by the Mexican government. The airstrip was identified as a 'narcopista'—a clandestine runway used by organized crime. Its location in the remote Chihuahuan Desert, between the city of Chihuahua and the U.S. border, made it a strategic point for drug cartels to transport narcotics, weapons, and cash via small aircraft. The Mexican Army systematically located and disabled such airstrips by digging trenches or using explosives to create craters on the runway surface, rendering them inoperable.

The site is abandoned and derelict. Satellite imagery confirms the existence of a degraded, unpaved runway in the middle of the desert. The surface is eroded and unsuitable for any aviation use. There are no buildings, hangars, or any other infrastructure on the site. The surrounding land is undeveloped arid scrubland, and the former airstrip is slowly being reclaimed by the natural environment.

The airport has no known history as a legitimate public, commercial, or private general aviation facility. Its entire significance is linked to its use as illegal infrastructure during the height of the Mexican Drug War. It served as a logistical asset for cartels, allowing for the rapid and covert movement of illicit goods. The airstrip is a physical artifact of the conflict between the Mexican state and powerful criminal organizations, representing the kind of informal infrastructure that sustained transnational smuggling operations in the early 21st century.

There are zero known plans or prospects for reopening Palos Blancos Airport. Given that it was never a legitimate facility and was forcibly shut down due to its role in criminal activities, there is no legal or economic basis for its reactivation. The Mexican government would not authorize the reconstruction of an airstrip with a documented history of use by cartels, and there is no public or commercial demand for an airport at this isolated location.