C/O Futures Weaponized Drone Research Note Series Robert J. Bunker and Kaden K. Bunker 18 February 2026 In April 2025 at the A2RL Drone Championship and Drone Champions League (DCL) competition in Abu Dhabi, an autonomous racing drone using neural network-based AI (artificial intelligence) control systems has—for the first time—beaten three human FPV (first person view) drone champions in a closed competitive aerial racing course. While this event with its head-to- head AI an

C/O Futures Mexican Cartel Imagery Archive Robert J. Bunker and Pamela Ligouri Bunker 1 February 2026 A 1:34 minute smart phone video shot in the field shows a Cabrera/MF sicario and his small team of seven or so cartel gunmen place a severed head on a drone and then launched it—presumably carrying the head to the rival cartel group La Chapiza-CJNG. At the start of the video, the young sicario engages in a disrespectful speech about the opposing Jalisco cartel linked to Los C

C/O Futures Weaponized Drone Research Note Series Robert J. Bunker 26 January 2026 In early January 2026, a Russian Shahed-like UAS outfitted with a MANPADS launcher carrying a guided missile has been reported recovered after it crashed. This development builds upon the early December 2025 deployment of an air-to-air missile on a Russian UAS. The intent of the initial air-to-air missile—and more practical follow on MANPADS—attachments on these weaponized UAS is to provide the

C/O Futures Cartel Research Note Series Robert J. Bunker 31 December 2025 26 Pages On Monday 20 October 2025 (or within a day or so prior to it), the Guardia Estatal (Tamaulipas State Police) and the Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (DEFENSA; Mexican Army) raided a safe house presumably belonging to the Los Metros faction of the Cártel del Golfo (CDG) in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, just below the U.S. border near McAllen, Texas. A cartel member was arrested along with the ensuing

C/O Futures Terrorism Research Note Series Lisa J. Campbell and Robert J. Bunker 3 December 2025 On 7 November 2025, a 17-year-old Muslim male student conducted a planned and premeditated bombing against a school Mosque which he attended in Jakarta, Indonesia. The attack is an outlier because the teen—who spent most of his at-home time in online spaces on his laptop—essentially became influenced to the point where he appropriated (internalized) the values, narratives, and sym

C/O Futures Cartel Special Report David A. Kuhn and Robert J. Bunker December 2025 22 Pages On 18 June 2023, a Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (SEDENA)—Mexican Army—Infantry Transport Vehicle (ITV) on patrol between the communities of Los Bateas and El Tepetate in Apatzingán, Michoacán was destroyed by two improvised bounding mines. The mines were planted by the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and targeted the approximately four military personnel on board,

C/O Futures Terrorism Research Note Series Pamela Ligouri Bunker and Robert J. Bunker 24 November 2025 On 24 September 2025, a sniper—identified as twenty-nine-year-old Joshua Jahn—opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) field office in Dallas, Texas. He fired indiscriminately from a nearby rooftop at the facility and at an unmarked van using a clip-fed bolt-action rifle. He killed two ICE detainees (one having died d

On 20 November 2025, the C/O Futures Director of Research and Analysis-- Dr. Robert J. Bunker --participated on the C ountering the Criminal Drone Threat in the Americas Panel for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. The virtual event description is as follows: "The adoption of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UASs) by nonstate armed groups throughout the Americas poses new challenges for security and stabilization efforts in the Americas. In c