Video clips have circulated this week showing men camped out in Ukrainian woodlands claiming affiliation with Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking groups. Members and associates tied to Mexican drug cartels, according to U.S. intelligence finding, have spent recent months becoming increasingly embedded within Ukrainian security forces fighting against Russians in eastern Europe.

Members of Mexican and Colombian cartels are joining Ukraine’s International Legion at a rapid rate in an a coordinated effort by criminal groups to obtain valuable knowledge and training in drone-warfare experience.

The identities of the men have not been confirmed, and it is not known when the footage was shot, according to reporting of the clips.

This most recent video and similar clips are the most visible piece of a story that has built for months: that criminal groups in Latin America are using the war in Ukraine as a training ground for the weapon that has most changed modern combat: the cheap, armed drone.

The reporting breaks into three separate claims, and they are not equally well supported.

The first is that cartel members are traveling to Ukraine to train. Milenio reported, citing a Mexican intelligence document shared with Ukraine’s Security Service, that members of the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels went to Ukraine posing as humanitarian volunteers to learn to fly first-person-view (FPV) drones.

One case described was a Mexican national known as “Águila 7,” who allegedly entered in March 2024 using a false Salvadoran identity, trained in Lviv, and impressed instructors with “advanced technical knowledge, such as the operation of analog transmitters,” according to a summary by Borderland Beat.

The document does not say how many people made the trip, and the claims have not been independently verified.

The second is that Colombian armed groups and criminal organizations are sending fighters, too. The Financial Times reported, as summarized by Ynet, that these groups want drone skills for use against Colombia’s military. It cited Colombian recruits with cartel links who were screened and deported, and a Ukrainian Defense Ministry recruitment officer, Taras Palianytsia.

The third runs in the other direction. The Washington Post reported on September 22, citing six unnamed officials, that Mexican cartels are recruiting Colombian former fighters from Ukraine for their drone expertise, according to Excélsior’s account.

Recruitment reportedly involves year-long contracts and, at times, threats against family to make sure recruits come back. The Post’s sources said cartels want people skilled at evading drone detection and operating longer-range, armed models.

Ukraine has become a global school for drone warfare. A December 2025 NY Post column by David Kirichenko listed Colombia, North Korea, Venezuela and several other states as sending personnel to study FPV operations, electronic warfare and counter-drone tactics.

Latin America supplies a large pool of volunteers.

One estimate, reported about 6,400 of roughly 16,000 foreign fighters, with Colombians the largest national group at 1,500 to 2,500. That figure is unofficial, and Sociedad Media could not trace it to a named source.

The Financial Times report cited by Ynet estimated that about 500 Colombians have died in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion.

An earlier report put the number at more than 300, so counts vary with the date and source.

Drone Use in Colombia & Mexico (FARC, ELN, Mexican Cartels)

None of this starts from zero. Mexican authorities documented more than 260 bomb-dropping drone incidents in 2023, and cartels flew over 60,000 drone flights near the U.S. border in a six-month period, the NY Post column reported.

In Colombia, armed groups carried out 264 drone attacks in 2024 and 2025, killing 15 soldiers and wounding 153.

The military says it neutralized 96% of attempted attacks last year, and the government announced a $1.6 billion counter-drone program.

In August 2025 a drone attack on a helicopter and a car bombing killed at least 18 people in Colombia.

U.S. officials are worried. Retired Gen. Glen VanHerck warned that cartels will “use techniques to counter our drones for surveilling them, potentially even attacking them,” as quoted by Excélsior. U.S. authorities said lasers downed 11 cartel-linked drones between August 24 and September 4, according to the same account.

What officials say

The State Department said it is working with law enforcement to “mitigate the risk of battlefield skills transfers,” while the Justice Department and DEA declined to comment.

Mexico warned Ukraine about possible infiltration of the International Legion. The U.S. also reportedly added screening for Mexicans who visited Ukraine in the past four years, per Milenio’s report.

The Washington Post’s sources are anonymous officials, and Excélsior notes the account describes anticipated tactics more than documented cases. No outlet I found has published names, numbers or verified documents tying specific cartel members to Ukrainian units, and neither Mexican nor Ukrainian authorities have confirmed it on the record.

The story lands as Washington is expanding its own drone campaign in the region. The New York Times reported this week that the U.S. has moved MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador for counternarcotics operations.