The French investigative outlet Intelligence Online reported Tuesday that Mexico’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) had warned Ukraine about individuals linked to drug cartels volunteering to join Ukraine’s International Legion – the foreign volunteer unit created by presidential decree in 2022 to fight as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) following Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The CNI warned that these individuals were coming to Ukraine not to support the war against Russian aggression but simply to gain expertise in the use of First-Person View (FPV) kamikaze drones for use in their own internecine fights against other cartels and Mexico’s security forces.
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Based on this information, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and the Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR) have set up a specialist unit to launch a joint investigation into the claims, focusing primarily on several Spanish-speaking volunteers from Colombia, Mexico and other Central American countries.
According to the French outlet, this includes volunteers working with HUR-sponsored units such as the “Ethos” tactical group that is said to conduct clandestine operations in the occupied Donbas and Kharkiv regions.
Some of those under investigation were introduced to Ukraine by private military companies (PMC) based in their home countries, which resulted in them avoiding the usual initial checks made on volunteers.
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The report says that these individuals sign up for training with one of the “drone academies” that Ukraine has established over the last three and a half years, which have trained thousands of drone pilots, builders and maintainers.
Originally limited to Ukrainian volunteers, this technical and tactical training has been opened to “trustworthy” foreign volunteers. It provides grounding in drone manufacture, mission planning, reconnaissance operations, electronic warfare (EW) and counter-EW techniques as well as experience in low-altitude flying.
According to the report, Mexican “veterans of Ukraine’s war” have already carried out drone attacks on rivals and domestic security forces on behalf of cartels, making use of the battlefield-tested skills they have acquired in Ukraine.
Mexico’s allegations proved
The SBU / HUR investigation has already uncovered evidence of criminal infiltration.
One case mentioned was that of a volunteer from El Salvador with the call sign Aguila-7 who, following a full drone training cycle conducted at Lviv’s “Killhouse Academy,” was serving with the logistical support team for a drone unit in Kharkiv.
After investigation, it was discovered that he was a Mexican who previously served with the country’s “GAFE” Special Forces Airmobile Group, several former members of which are known to have become members of the ultra-violent Zetas cartels.
According to Intelligence Online, citing a Slovakian security source, at least three former Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas joined the International Legion using Panamanian and Venezuelan identity documents. One was eventually identified by the SBU at a drone training center in Dnipro after his gang tattoos and accent gave him away.
The CNI’s notice has also led to an investigation by Polish, Bulgarian and other European authorities into some of the Latin American PMCs that were offering volunteers.
As a result, while some are legitimate providers of security services, several were found to be involved in criminal activity, including gun running, people trafficking, provision of fake passports, false identities and humanitarian visas, and some with undoubted links to drug cartels.
The evidence is that the expertise gained in drone warfare as Kyiv battles the Russian invasion is not only attractive to its allies’ military forces but also, unfortunately, to criminals.
The SBU unit has been tasked with the control of exportable military know-how, not only that related to drone warfare. Its investigators have developed strong links with Interpol, the US and other Drug Enforcement agencies, which have already identified several potential volunteers with criminal links, and that will hopefully close off this loophole.
An unnamed member of the SBU told Intelligence Online: “We used to welcome volunteers in good faith. But we must now recognize that Ukraine has become a platform for the global dissemination of FPV tactics. Some come here to learn how to kill with a $400 drone, then sell this knowledge elsewhere to the highest bidder.”
HUR, in response to a Kyiv Post inquiry on the subject, said it is not informed about the developments.
Kyiv Post has also contacted the SBU for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
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