In the worlds of espionage and black ops many techniques are employed to spread classified intel through non-secure forms of communication such as newspapers and magazines, when the transfer of the information is not time critical,  and also through various internet platforms such as Facebook or X when the need to relay the messages are more time sensitive.  A recent example of one of these hidden in plain sight classified messages that was sent to operatives in the field through social media outlets involved the Federal Aviation Administration’s closing of the airspace around El Paso, Texas, on February 10, 2026.  On that night, as the story goes, the Department of Homeland Security used a  laser-based weapon on loan to it by the Department of War to shoot down what was said to be drug cartel operated drones, but were in fact, (again, as the story goes), simply innocuous “party balloons”.

However, and as the following evidence supports, my conclusion is that there were never any drones or party balloons involved in the incident, but rather, it was a much more potentially deadlier unauthorized infiltration of a Chinese airborne asset into the Continental United States; namely  a Boeing 777 Chinese Cargo Plane en route from Mexico City to Shanghai, China. 

And though this incident was not similar to the infamous Chinese Spy Balloon incident of February 2023, save for they both involved Chinese aerial trespassers, the intelligence community drew upon the Chinese Spy Balloon Incident vernacular to openly convey classified information about the El Paso incursion, by floating the (Chinese Communist) Party Balloon narrative to announce to intel operatives that U.S. Airspace had once again been breached by Chinese unfriendlys.