Las Margaritas Airport

The airport was not a public or commercial facility but a clandestine airstrip built and used for illicit purposes. It was a key logistical hub for the Guadalajara Cartel for smuggling narcotics into the United States. Its closure was a direct result of being seized or abandoned during 'Operation Leyenda,' a massive law enforcement initiative launched after the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, which aimed to dismantle the cartel's infrastructure.

The site is abandoned and derelict. Satellite imagery shows the two large, unpaved runways in an 'X' configuration are still clearly visible but are unmaintained, eroded, and being reclaimed by the surrounding Chihuahuan Desert scrubland. There are no signs of any current aviation or other activity at the site. It remains a remote and isolated relic.

Las Margaritas Airport holds significance not in public aviation, but as a notorious artifact of the 1980s drug war. It was a large, strategically located private airfield operated by the Guadalajara Cartel, led by figures like Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, to transship vast quantities of cocaine from South America into the U.S. Famed smuggler and DEA informant Barry Seal was also known to operate in this region of Northern Mexico. The airport's scale, with its distinctive X-shaped runways visible from satellite, illustrates the sophistication and immense resources of these early drug trafficking organizations.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the airport. Its remote location, illicit history, and lack of supporting infrastructure make it unsuitable for any legitimate commercial, private, or military aviation purposes. It is considered permanently closed and is likely to remain an abandoned historical site.