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Валентин ШнайдерWar
30 July 2025, 16:43
2025-07-30
"Learn to kill with a drone for $400, and then sell this knowledge to whoever pays the most": how the war in Ukraine became a training ground for drug cartels
Under the guise of foreign volunteers, emissaries of the criminal world are entering Ukraine. Mexican and Colombian drug cartels are sending their people to learn how to fly attack drones, adopting Ukrainian combat experience. According to the investigation, some of them have already returned home from the war and intend to apply the acquired skills on the streets of Latin America.
Under the guise of foreign volunteers, emissaries of the criminal world are entering Ukraine. Mexican and Colombian drug cartels are sending their people to learn how to fly attack drones, adopting Ukrainian combat experience. According to the investigation, some of them have already returned home from the war and intend to apply the acquired skills on the streets of Latin America.
This is reported by the French publication Intelligence Online. In early summer 2025, the Security Service of Ukraine received a confidential warning from the National Intelligence Center of Mexico. It stated that some Mexican citizens who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine as foreign volunteers did so not for ideological reasons, but to learn the combat use of drones. In particular, Mexican intelligence warned that some volunteers joined the International Legion under the auspices of the GUR precisely with the aim of taking a course in training strike drone operators (primarily FPV drones), and later using these skills in the interests of drug cartels.
After that, the SBU, together with the GUR, launched an investigation. It covered not only Mexican citizens, but also volunteers from Colombia, in particular fighters from the specialized foreign unit Tactical Group Ethos.
The investigation found that some of the suspected "legionnaires" tried to bypass standard entrance checks in order to get into drone operator training courses and transfer the knowledge they gained to international criminal organizations. Instructors noticed that several Latin American recruits showed too much interest in training on drones, ignoring other military disciplines. Law enforcement officers paid particular attention to one volunteer with the call sign "Aguila-7". In March 2024, he joined the International Legion, presenting himself as a citizen of El Salvador, and completed a full course of training for UAV operators at one of the centers in Lviv.
According to Ukrainian instructors, this fighter demonstrated an exceptionally high level of technical awareness: he skillfully found the "blind spots" of thermal imagers and knew methods for bypassing electronic warfare systems.
The investigation found that Aguila-7 is likely linked to the Mexican army's special forces unit, GAFE. This is an elite group, some of whose former fighters previously defected to the Los Zetas criminal cartel.
It was also revealed that at least three former fighters of the Colombian FARC group passed through Ukraine under the guise of volunteers. They used false documents (Panama and Venezuela), and their arrival and legalization were allegedly organized by structures related to the drug trade. Currently, these cases are being investigated by a special counterintelligence unit of the SBU. Ukrainian law enforcement officers emphasize that most foreigners came sincerely to help Ukraine, but a dangerous trend has also been identified: the war has become attractive to criminals seeking to acquire military skills.
"We accepted volunteers with good intentions. But we must admit: Ukraine has actually become a global platform for spreading the tactics of using FPV drones. Some come here to learn how to kill with a drone for $400, and then sell this knowledge to whoever pays the most," one of the SBU leaders commented on the situation to the French publication.
In other words, drug cartels' emissaries could have infiltrated Ukraine under the guise of allies to gain invaluable combat experience. Currently, Ukrainian special services are continuing to investigate and vet foreign volunteers who have aroused suspicion, and have presumably already removed such individuals from access to sensitive training.
Why do drug cartels need this?
Why are Latin American criminal groups so interested in Ukrainian FPV drones and the tactics of their use? In fact, Mexican drug cartels have been actively using drones in their wars against both competing gangs and government forces for several years. This “drone war” has rapidly developed recently and is gaining momentum:
Hundreds of drone attacks . While in 2020 only 5 drone attacks were recorded in Mexico, in 2021 there were 107, in 2022 there were 233 attacks, and in the first half of 2023 alone there were over 260 attacks. Drones loaded with explosives are used by drug lords to bomb rival positions or even attack law enforcement. According to the Mexican Ministry of Defense, dozens of military and police officers have already been injured as a result of such attacks.
Own UAV units . One of the most powerful Mexican cartels, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), has pioneered the use of drones. Since 2020, the CJNG has been systematically dropping explosive devices from commercial quadcopters on enemy hideouts. The cartel has even created a special unit of “drone operators” with its own emblems. The group of about a dozen fighters operates in the states of Michoacan and Jalisco, hunting other gangs and confronting the Mexican army. Mexican police have repeatedly seized CJNG drones with attached explosive munitions, including homemade ones (shells with chemicals have even been found).
First attempts at FPV strikes . In April 2023, the first case of the use of an FPV drone in criminal clashes was recorded in Mexico. According to experts , the CJNG cartel was also behind the attack, which decided to try out a new tactic. Although that particular FPV drone did not reach its target (it exploded earlier), its very appearance was an alarming signal about the evolution of the drug mafia's arsenal. Experts suggest that the cartels will continue to experiment with FPV drones, taking into account the experience of the war in Ukraine.
Intelligence and smuggling . Drones are actively used by cartels to monitor police and border guards. There is a well-known case in 2019, when a drone monitored US patrols on the border to help drug couriers choose a safe moment to transport cargo. According to estimates by the US Air Defense Command, more than 1,000 border crossings by drones are recorded every month on the southern border alone, and some of them are used specifically to transport drugs or conduct intelligence for the cartels. Moreover, the cartels themselves are already thinking about protecting themselves from drones: a portable drone jammer worth about $100,000 was recently found on a member of the Sinaloa cartel.
Thus, combat-capable FPV drones in the hands of drug cartels can become a real “weapon of the poor.” They are relatively cheap, mobile, difficult to track, and capable of delivering precision strikes that were previously only available to armies. It is not surprising that Latin American criminal groups are interested in gaining as much knowledge and practice as possible about these technologies.
Foreign volunteers: how many of them are Latin Americans?
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukraine has accepted thousands of foreign volunteers from all over the world. A significant part of them is the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine, created in 2022. The fighters of the legion and other units came from more than 50 countries, mostly from Europe and North America. However, the contribution of Latin America is also noticeable, even if it is less often mentioned in the media. The largest group of Latin American fighters is Colombians. They joined the Ukrainian army en masse, many of whom had experience serving in the Colombian army or police.
Recently, the commander of the Ukrainian 47th separate brigade "Magura" reported that the brigade has a separate company, formed mostly from Colombian citizens, its number has reached approximately 2,000 people. According to the commander (call sign "Hamlet"), only if desired, it was possible to take up to a thousand more Colombian volunteers to the front every month. Colombians are highly motivated: some speak of a call from the heart to help Ukraine, others openly admit that they were attracted by the opportunity to earn money to support their families. Volunteers from Peru and even from African Zimbabwe also fight in the "Colombian" unit of the brigade.
Sad statistics
Besides the fact that Colombia has the largest number of foreign volunteers in Ukraine, there is also the sad fact that they have the highest mortality rate on the battlefield. Below is a list of the 10 countries whose citizens have died the most in the war in Ukraine.
No.
Country
Number
1
Colombia
268
2
USA
91
3
Georgia
87
4
Belarusian
49
5
Russia
48
6
Great Britain
40
7
Azerbaijan
35
8
France
29
9
Poland
19
10
Brazil
19
As can be seen from the table, Colombian volunteers are ahead of their foreign colleagues in terms of mortality by a large margin.
In comparison, there are much fewer volunteers from Mexico, but their number is growing. Most Mexicans arrived in Ukraine later, in 2023–2024. Many of them are former military or even ex-police officers who decided to become legionnaires. According to Western press reports , as of the summer of 2025, approximately 18 Mexican volunteers had already reached Ukraine and taken part in the fighting, two of whom died. At least 90 more Mexican citizens were in the process of processing documents and preparing to be sent to the front.
For Mexicans, as well as for other foreigners, the Ukrainian side does not provide official data, but it is known that they also bear their losses. For example, the death of several volunteers from Mexico was confirmed on social networks by their fellow servicemen. In addition to Latin Americans, hundreds of citizens of the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Poland, Georgia, Belarus, the Baltic countries and other states are fighting in the ranks of the defenders of Ukraine. Many have joined the International Legion, some have joined other units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or volunteer formations. All of them are risking their lives for the victory of Ukraine. However, the case of the "werewolves" from drug cartels showed that among the flow of volunteers there can be people with ulterior motives. Ukrainian special services now have to check foreigners more carefully to prevent the leakage of combat know-how to criminal elements.
We previously wrote about how American gamers are becoming skilled drone operators in Ukraine. The Ukrainian military is noting an influx of foreign volunteers from the US, Canada, the UK, France and other countries who have experience playing on Xbox and other consoles.
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