The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has uncovered that individuals linked to Latin American drug cartels have infiltrated the country’s International Legion to receive advanced drone training. These operatives are believed to have traveled to Ukraine with the intention of using their newly acquired skills against rival gangs and law enforcement in their home countries.
Ukrainian security services launched an investigation following a warning issued earlier this summer by Mexico’s National Intelligence Center. According to the alert, several Mexican nationals had joined Ukraine’s foreign volunteer units specifically to learn first-person view (FPV) drone tactics. As the investigation progressed, similar patterns were detected among Colombian nationals, raising concerns that Ukraine may have become, albeit unintentionally, a training ground for transnational criminal networks.
The inquiry has primarily focused on the tactical group “Ethos,” which is active in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. Ukrainian officials suspect that some Mexican and Colombian recruits deliberately sought placement in drone operator units with plans to apply that knowledge to cartel operations back home.
One prominent case involves a Mexican citizen operating under the alias “Águila-7,” who registered with Ukraine’s forces in March 2024 using falsified Salvadoran documents. Posing as a humanitarian volunteer, he underwent comprehensive drone training in Lviv and quickly raised suspicions among instructors due to his exceptional technical knowledge. His expertise included electronic warfare countermeasures and thermal signature evasion — skills uncommon among ordinary recruits. Further background checks suggested ties to Mexico’s elite GAFE special forces, whose former members have historically been recruited by violent cartel groups such as the Zetas.
These incidents reveal a high level of operational sophistication by non-state actors. Individuals used forged identities, fake documentation, and front companies — many of them security firms based in Latin America — to gain access to Ukrainian military structures and training.
Additional reports point to former FARC guerrilla fighters who allegedly entered Ukraine using Panamanian and Venezuelan documents. At least three ex-FARC members are believed to have passed through the International Legion using false identities, with their relocation reportedly facilitated by cartel-linked intermediaries.
The situation highlights Ukraine’s unintended role in the proliferation of modern asymmetric warfare techniques amidst its ongoing conflict with Russia. Ukrainian training programs now cover a wide range of battlefield applications, including drone manufacturing, tactical deployment, electronic warfare, and real-time combat coordination. Ironically, these are the very skills that criminal organizations are actively seeking to acquire.
According to an anonymous SBU official speaking to Intelligence Online, “We welcomed volunteers in good faith. But we must now recognize that Ukraine has become a platform for the global spread of FPV tactics. Some come here to learn how to kill with a $400 drone — and then sell that knowledge to the highest bidder.”
These revelations are being closely monitored by international security analysts, particularly given the recent surge in drone-related violence in Mexico and Colombia. The possibility that such battlefield tactics are now being exported to criminal networks poses a growing threat to regional and global security.
