It’s a clear and present danger to the US.
The protracted conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to reverberate harmfully across Europe and beyond, triggering crises in energy, escalating military tensions, and a host of other complications. Now, the situation is morphing into a surreal narrative that entangles Latin America’s notorious drug cartels in a dangerous alliance with military operations in Ukraine.
In a startling development, operatives from these cartels are reportedly making their way to Ukraine to gain expertise in drone warfare, a tactical shift alarming to US national security.
Their training ground? The Kill House Academy, which British media describes as the “Top Gun school for the drone-warfare era.” This facility has gained notoriety for preparing some of Ukraine’s most skilled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) pilots.
Integrating seamlessly among the influx of new recruits from Latin America, cartel members have found the perfect cover to participate in this military training.
The Telegraph elaborates:
“Among the more promising recent recruits [at the Kill House Academy] was a pilot with the callsign Aguila 7 (Eagle 7) – a former special forces soldier from Mexico, enlisted with Ukraine’s International Legion. While he shone in his training, it turned out that his enemies went beyond Russian troops. Eagle 7 was actually a foot soldier in Mexico’s feared Los Zetas drug cartel, dispatched to acquire drone capabilities for use in ongoing drug conflicts back home, according to reports.”
In July, Mexican intelligence alerted Ukrainian authorities to the infiltrations by criminal elements.
“They warned Kyiv that cartel members were embedding themselves within Ukraine’s foreign fighter units to learn the operation of first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones. These drones offer pilots a direct view of their targets just before impact,” reports indicate.
Recently, members of the Sinaloa cartel demonstrated a new kind of ‘fiber-optic’ FPV drone, revealing their continuous adaptation to modern warfare techniques.
“Ukraine has effectively become a training ground for the global proliferation of FPV combat tactics,” a Kyiv security official conveyed to Intelligence Online, a French security outlet that first unveiled the inquiry regarding Aguila 7. “Some individuals arrive to master the art of warfare using a $400 drone and later monetize that expertise to the highest bidder.”
The lax entry protocols regarding international recruits make it easier for these cartels to exploit the situation.
“In recent months, there are numerous reports indicating that both Mexican and Colombian cartels are attempting to infiltrate the Ukrainian military to learn techniques that they can repurpose in Latin America,” articulated Alexander Marciniak, a Latin American intelligence analyst for Sibylline, a private intelligence firm, in an interview with The Telegraph. “The possibilities for drone use in the cartels’ activities are extensive—ranging from retaliatory strikes to reconnaissance on rivals and various smuggling operations.”
The last few years have seen a phenomenon in Mexico where the use of attack drones has skyrocketed, escalating from a handful of incidents in 2020 to reportedly over 40 incidents monthly by 2023—an alarming rate exceeding one such event every day.
How long until these capabilities are turned against the US?
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