Intelligence Report Suggests Cartel Members Enlisted in Ukraine to Learn Drone Warfare

Ukraine’s domestic intelligence suspects Spanish-speaking volunteers of infiltrating the International Legion to train in flying FPV drones. Some are reportedly linked to cartels and have been recruited through private military companies.

A confidential memo sent recently by Mexico’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) alerted Ukraine’s SBU counter-intelligence service to the presence of Mexican volunteers suspected of joining the International Legion, not out of ideological conviction but to acquire advanced expertise in drone warfare, particularly in the handling of First-Person View (FPV) kamikaze drones.

At the CNI’s request, the SBU launched an investigation, in coordination with Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence, of several Spanish-speakers who had joined units attached to the second squadron of the GUR’s International Legion, including the Tactical Group Ethos, a semi-clandestine unit operating in the Donbas and Kharkiv oblasts.

Ukrainian investigators suspect that some Mexican and Colombian volunteers are specifically signing up to join FPV academies, circumventing initial checks, to then pass on their skills to transnational criminal organisations.

Ukraine FPV Drone Training

As clashes raged from Bakhmut to Velyka Novosilka, Ukraine became the global hotbed for tactical training in drone warfare. Over two years, a comprehensive doctrine emerged, ranging from artisanal manufacturing to real-time reconnaissance, mastery of analogue settings, thermal camouflage, understanding various jamming techniques and low-altitude flying.

FPV drone academies associated with the 3rd Azov Assault Brigade, the Chosen unit and the GUR’s technology centres have trained thousands of pilots. These training centres, initially reserved for Ukrainian operators, have gradually opened up to foreign volunteers deemed trustworthy.

It was within these structures that Ukrainian security services first noticed anomalies. Several Mexican and Colombian individuals, recruited through the International Legion, seemed to be obsessed with drone training modules, to the detriment of any other type of training. Among them was a certain “Aguila-7,” the operational nickname given by the SBU to a Mexican volunteer registered in March 2024 under a false Salvadoran identity.

Presenting himself as a humanitarian, “Aguila-7″ joined a logistical support cell of the Chosen unit in the Kharkiv region before completing a full training cycle at the Killhouse Academy in Lviv. His instructors noticed that he was already highly skilled. He was proficient in analogue transmitters, could identify thermal blind spots and anticipate radio countermeasures.

 
A subsequent investigation revealed that he had belonged to the Mexican special forces’ GAFE, an elite unit trained in guerrilla tactics, counterinsurgency and the advanced use of military equipment, including drones. Some of the unit’s recruits turned to the dark side, notably through the ultra-violent Zetas cartel, founded by GAFE deserters.

According to a European security source involved in screening at the Slovakian border, at least three former FARC guerrillas have also passed through the International Legion network, thanks to Panamanian and Venezuelan identity documents. One of them, aged around 40, was reportedly identified in internal videos from an FPV training centre in Dnipro. His tattoos and accent enabled him belatedly to be reported to the SBU.

Latin American PMCs

Several such individuals are believed to have passed through private military companies used as front organisations. Among them, Grupo ROKA Seguridad, a Mexican company officially specialising in industrial security, has been cited by Polish customs authorities in several confidential reports linked to cases of transit of small arms and personnel suspected of entering Ukraine from the Medyka border crossing.

This information, reported to European arms trafficking authorities, has allegedly led to the discovery of fictitious contracts facilitating the passage of volunteers with criminal backgrounds. Proteccion Ejecutiva Maya, based in Cancun, provided forged letters of recommendation to two volunteers identified in the Legion’s databases. In Colombia, SEGURCOL SAS, active in Cali and Medellin, organised the recruitment of former lanceros, as elite soldiers are known in the country, on behalf of foreign clients, according to a confidential note sent by the Direccion de Investigacion Criminal e Interpol.

Some of these companies are directly linked to drug trafficking logistics networks, enabling financing, legalisation of travel and sometimes the provision of fake passports and humanitarian visas. Their documented itineraries pass through Madrid, Bucharest, Katowice and Przemysl, with stopovers in Slovakia and Moldova.

The case is being led by a technical division of the SBU attached to the general directorate for counter-intelligence. The unit is responsible for protecting the state’s strategic interests in sensitive areas, including cyber security, artificial intelligence, critical infrastructure protection and the control of exportable military know-how.

The division has since 2023 been working in close coordination with GUR structures, in particular tactical training centres for drone warfare, in order to filter foreign profiles accessing FPV modules and prevent any attempt to transfer doctrine or engage in industrial espionage for the benefit of state or non-state actors.

Several Spanish-speaking volunteers suspected of joining FPV academies with ulterior motives have had their data cross-checked with Interpol and US Drug Enforcement Administration files. Some are suspected of having a criminal record or of having belonged to narco-paramilitary militias active in Latin America.

An SBU official interviewed by Intelligence Online in Ukraine summed up the situation bluntly: “We welcomed volunteers in good faith. But we must now recognise 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.”

Beyond Ukraine, the spectre of a decentralised and criminal drone war is looming. Controlled from the mountains of Sinaloa, the plantations of Cauca or the favelas of Rio, it could be deployed using expertise imported directly from the battlefield.

Source Intelligence Online