Why Mexican cartels are fighting in Ukraine
Because Ukraine is the world’s laboratory and classroom for the future of armed drone conflict. They volunteer to learn.
Drug cartels from Mexico and Colombia have sent members to volunteer in Ukraine’s foreign fighter units for advanced training in drone warfare.
According to reports, they’re lying about cartel connections and using forged documents to hide their association with drug cartels.
The Security Service of Ukraine and Ukrainian military intelligence were warned about the infiltration by Mexico’s National Intelligence Center starting in mid-2024.
One specific case: A Mexican national using the alias “Águila-7” entered Ukraine in March 2024 with a fake Salvadoran ID. He completed FPV drone training in Lviv. He was reportedly found out because he failed to conceal his existing technical expertise.
The cartels want to learn to operate battlefield drones, create innovative drones, use drones for electronic warfare countermeasures and thermal evasion, learn to defeat jamming via autonomous AI drones, and perform coordinated assaults using drone swarms.
Ukrainian front line knowledge has already been used in inter-cartel conflicts in Mexico and Colombia. Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel has been ramping up weaponized drone use in conflicts with other cartels, using tactical innovations and training not previously seen in Mexico.
Why drones? Why Ukraine?
Drones changed the Ukraine-Russia war unexpectedly. In 2022, Ukraine started using cheap first-person-view drones, the kind available at BestBuy for $400, armed with explosives. Since then, the type, tactics, and innovations expanded. Ukraine's use of drones—across air, land, and sea—has become a hallmark of its defense strategy. Ukrainian forces deploy a mix of kamikaze, reconnaissance, FPV (first-person view), and bombing drones. The 1,000 km-long front line is described as a "drone-infested kill zone," where drones from both sides dominate and dictate battlefield outcomes.
By the numbers:
Ukraine produced at least 2 million drones in 2024.
Projected total domestic drone production target for 2025 is 4.5 million drones.
In 2025, Ukraine plans to produce around 30,000 long-range UAVs.
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief claimed in May that drones were used to strike and destroy over 89,000 Russian military targets.
At least 9,700 Ukrainian drones have been used to strike inside Russian territory since the war began.
Ukrainian drones are now responsible for about 70% of confirmed Russian combat losses.
The Russia/Ukraine conflict is the world’s classroom on the future of warfare.
The Pentagon has changed its approach due to Ukraine’s war with Russia. Drones have become central. The Pentagon is now rapidly boosting drone spending and pushing U.S. forces to adopt small, inexpensive drones for both attack and defense. Troop movements, command posts and even U.S. bases are being rethought, since drones make it unsafe to gather soldiers or vehicles in the open.
U.S. Army units are experimenting with tactics learned from Ukraine.
Other major militaries, from Israel to Taiwan, have pivoted sharply to drones because of Ukraine.
That drug cartels are embracing advanced Ukraine-developed drone tactics and strategies means that it’s only a matter of time before they can attack US law enforcement across the border, jam communications, assassinate politicians and journalists globally, silence witnesses, threaten judges, and use drone swarms for smuggling. They have the money. And now they’re going to the source to gain the knowledge.
It turns out drones aren’t only the future of warfare, but the future of the illegal drug trade.
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