Mexican and Colombian Cartel Personnel Train in Ukraine to Learn FPV Kamikaze Drone TTPs
Updated: Sep 29
C/O Futures Cartel Research Note Series
Robert J. Bunker
25 September 2025
Mexican and Colombian Cartel Personnel Are Seeking Battlefield Drone Expertise in Ukraine
Mexican and Colombian cartel-linked personnel and contractors have reportedly traveled to Ukraine with the objective of acquiring advanced first-person view (FPV) weaponized drone skills and related counter-countermeasure tactics developed during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
According to reporting examined by C/O Futures, cartel-linked individuals were joining or accessing training associated with Ukraine’s International Legion and specialized “drone academies” as early as March 2024, if not earlier. The reported objective was not simply participation in the war, but the acquisition of battlefield-tested drone knowledge that could later be transferred back to Latin American criminal organizations.
The activity reportedly became serious enough that Mexico’s Centro Nacional de
Inteligencia (CNI) warned Ukrainian authorities, prompting scrutiny by the Security Service of Ukraine and Ukrainian military intelligence.
This represents a potentially significant development in the continued evolution of Mexican cartel drone warfare.
Key Findings
Mexican and Colombian cartel-linked personnel were reportedly seeking specialized FPV drone training in Ukraine, with activity traced to at least 2024.
The training reportedly included more than basic piloting and could encompass mission planning, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, counter-EW techniques, low-altitude flight, drone construction, and maintenance.
Mexico’s CNI reportedly warned Ukrainian authorities that some Latin American volunteers were entering military formations specifically to acquire combat UAV knowledge for criminal organizations.
Ukrainian authorities reportedly investigated Spanish-speaking volunteers associated with International Legion elements, while reporting also raised concerns about individuals with potential links to Mexican cartels and Colombian armed or criminal networks.
C/O Futures assesses that Mexican cartel weaponized drone development may now be entering a third phase: a shift from conventional commercial drones and aerial bomblet delivery toward immersive FPV kamikaze drone systems.
Physical evidence from Mexico in 2025 indicates that FPV kamikaze drone use is no longer merely theoretical, with documented incidents in Nayarit and Veracruz.
Why Ukraine Matters
The Russo-Ukrainian War has become one of the world’s most important laboratories for the rapid development of small unmanned aerial systems.
FPV drones that originated as inexpensive racing and hobby platforms have been adapted into highly maneuverable expendable weapons capable of attacking personnel, vehicles, defensive positions, and other battlefield targets.
These systems have been deployed at scale by both Russian and Ukrainian forces, producing an accelerated cycle of tactical innovation, countermeasures, electronic warfare, and counter-countermeasures.
For a criminal organization seeking to improve its own drone capabilities, the opportunity to gain direct exposure to this battlefield ecosystem could therefore provide something far more valuable than simply learning how to fly a drone.
It provides access to combat-tested tactics, operational experience, and knowledge developed against an active opposing force.
Ukraine’s “Drone Academies” and the Transfer of Battlefield Knowledge
Reporting cited by C/O Futures describes Ukrainian training programs capable of providing instruction in areas including:
Drone manufacture and maintenance
Mission planning
Reconnaissance operations
Low-altitude flight
Electronic warfare
Counter-electronic warfare techniques
FPV combat operations
Such training was originally developed to support Ukraine’s own war effort but was later made available to foreign volunteers considered trustworthy.
The threat concern arises when individuals affiliated with organized crime are able to penetrate those training pipelines and transfer the resulting knowledge elsewhere.
C/O Futures identifies training locations associated with the reported activity in Dnipro and Lviv, along with units connected to the International Legion.
Possible Criminal Penetration of Foreign-Fighter Pipelines
Reporting examined in the research note indicates that some individuals may have attempted to circumvent normal International Legion vetting mechanisms through the use of Latin American private security or military companies.
The Intelligence Online reporting cited by C/O Futures specifically raised concerns regarding Grupo ROKA Seguridad and Proteccion Ejecutiva Maya in Mexico and SEGURCOL SAS in Colombia, describing alleged links to recruitment, documentation, travel facilitation, or criminal logistics.
C/O Futures further notes reporting suggesting possible connections to personnel associated with FARC, former Mexican special forces personnel, Los Zetas, and CJNG.
These reports highlight a broader security challenge: combat zones can function not only as battlefields, but as environments where non-state actors acquire expertise that can later diffuse into criminal conflicts elsewhere.
Mexican Cartel Drone Warfare Did Not Begin in Ukraine
The significance of the reported Ukrainian training is best understood within the longer evolution of Mexican cartel weaponized drone use.
C/O Futures traces Mexican cartel weaponized drones back to at least October 2017, when authorities seized a 3DR Solo quadcopter associated with CJNG carrying an improvised explosive device known as a “Papa Bomba.”
Cartel drone warfare then developed through several stages.
Phase One — IED-Carrying Commercial Drones
Early systems paired commercially available consumer drones with improvised explosive devices or military munitions.
Operators generally controlled these aircraft through traditional handheld interfaces rather than immersive FPV systems.
Phase Two — Aerial Bombardment
Beginning around 2021, cartel organizations—particularly CJNG—expanded their use of drones for aerial delivery of explosive bomblets.
Rather than using the drone itself as the weapon, the aircraft functioned as a reusable aerial bombing platform.
Phase Three — FPV Kamikaze Drones
C/O Futures assesses that cartel drone warfare may now be entering a third phase involving full FPV immersive control and expendable kamikaze drones.
This model more closely resembles the systems now extensively employed on the Russo-Ukrainian battlefield.
Such systems offer increased speed, maneuverability, precision, and the ability to directly guide the aircraft into a target.
From Traditional Drone Controllers to Immersive FPV Operations
The transition to FPV systems changes the operator’s relationship with the aircraft.
Traditional cartel drone systems have generally relied on operators looking down at handheld displays or controllers.
FPV systems instead provide an immersive view through goggles, allowing the pilot to maneuver the aircraft from the drone’s visual perspective.
The research note illustrates this evolution by comparing traditional Mexican cartel drone-control systems with FPV equipment used in the Ukrainian conflict.
The significance is not simply technological.
FPV operation enables a different class of tactics—particularly the use of fast, maneuverable aircraft intentionally flown into a target.
Early Warning Signs Existed Before 2025
Evidence suggesting cartel interest in immersive drone control predates the recent reporting from Ukraine.
In June 2021, cartel social media imagery showed a member of the Sicarios del Tigre, Cartel de Sinaloa en Durango, wearing a virtual-reality-style headset.
The precise purpose of the equipment was never established, and C/O Futures treated the event as an isolated indicator rather than proof of an operational FPV program.
Another important precursor occurred during a December 2021 CJNG assault in Villa Victoria, Michoacán, where weaponized drones supported an attack against Guardia Nacional personnel and local residents.
Security-camera imagery captured one drone moving rapidly down a street before detonating against a structure.
Neither event independently demonstrated a mature FPV kamikaze capability.
In retrospect, however, both take on greater significance as earlier indicators of the technological trajectory that followed.
2025: Cartel FPV Kamikaze Drones Become Ground Truth
By 2025, evidence of actual cartel FPV kamikaze drone activity had begun appearing in Mexico.
Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit
A damaged FPV drone was reportedly recovered near Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit, following what sources cited in the research note described as a failed CJNG FPV attack against a Sinaloa cartel faction.
Video of the aircraft appeared online in April 2025.
C/O Futures assesses the incident as evidence that CJNG had begun operational experimentation with FPV kamikaze drones.
Coxquihui, Veracruz
A second important incident occurred in Coxquihui, Veracruz, in July 2025.
Imagery showed an FPV drone configured with an explosive payload. C/O Futures assesses the system as substantially more representative of the type of FPV kamikaze configuration associated with the Russo-Ukrainian battlefield.
Together, the Nayarit and Veracruz incidents provide physical indications that the transition toward FPV kamikaze systems is already underway.
Why CJNG Is Central to the Threat Evolution
CJNG has repeatedly appeared at the forefront of Mexican cartel drone innovation.
The organization was involved in early weaponized-drone experimentation, subsequently adopted aerial bomblet-delivery tactics, and by 2023 had reportedly established specialized Operadores Droneros, or drone operator units.
This pattern makes CJNG particularly important from an indications-and-warning perspective.
If battlefield-derived FPV tactics diffuse into Mexican cartel conflicts at greater scale, the organizations with the strongest history of technical experimentation and specialized drone personnel are likely to be among the first to operationalize them.
The Ukraine-to-Mexico Battlefield Transfer
The central concern identified by C/O Futures is the movement of tactics, techniques, and procedures from a state-on-state war into a criminal insurgency environment.
The problem is therefore not simply technology transfer.
Commercial FPV components are already widely available.
What Ukraine offers is experience:
Combat-tested mission planning.
Targeting methodology.
Operating under hostile conditions.
Electronic-warfare adaptation.
Counter-countermeasure techniques.
The integration of drone operators with ground units.
Repeated exposure to rapidly evolving drone combat.
For Mexican cartels, those skills could be adapted to conflicts with rival criminal organizations as well as confrontations with Mexican law enforcement and military forces.
Implications for Law Enforcement and Military Forces
The transition to FPV kamikaze drones creates substantially different force-protection challenges from earlier cartel drone systems.
A conventional bomblet-dropping drone generally has to position itself above a target and release a payload.
An FPV kamikaze drone can instead approach rapidly at low altitude and be manually steered into personnel, vehicles, fortifications, or other targets.
C/O Futures assesses that expanding cartel use of these systems could create significant officer-safety and force-protection concerns for Mexican law enforcement and military forces.
The potential implications also extend to U.S. homeland security personnel operating near the southern border.
The research note argues that the threat environment should increasingly account for the possibility of cartel FPV systems being employed in proximity to U.S. Border Patrol, National Guard, military, or other federal personnel.
What Comes Next?
The current generation of cartel FPV systems may represent only an intermediate stage.
C/O Futures identifies two additional areas of concern based on technological developments already observed in Ukraine.
More Capable Drone-Mounted Warheads
The Russo-Ukrainian battlefield has demonstrated the adaptation of increasingly capable explosive payloads to inexpensive FPV aircraft.
If similar technical knowledge spreads into cartel arsenals, FPV systems could become increasingly effective against vehicles and hardened targets.
Fiber-Optic Controlled FPV Drones
A second developmental pathway involves fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones.
These systems have emerged in Ukraine as a response to increasingly dense electronic-warfare environments because their control link does not depend on a conventional radio-frequency connection.
C/O Futures identifies this as a possible future evolutionary pathway should cartel and governmental counter-UAS capabilities increasingly interfere with conventional radio-controlled drones.
C/O Futures Threat Assessment
The reported Ukrainian training activity should not be viewed in isolation.
Mexican cartels already possessed years of experience with weaponized drones before reports emerged of cartel-linked personnel seeking training in Ukraine.
What Ukraine potentially provides is a mechanism for accelerating that evolution.
The combination of:
established cartel drone programs,
specialized drone operators,
access to commercial FPV technology,
combat training acquired abroad,
battlefield-tested TTPs,
and continuing conflict with rival cartels and government forces
creates the conditions for more sophisticated forms of criminal drone warfare.
The emergence of FPV kamikaze drones in Mexico during 2025 indicates that at least part of this technological transition has already begun.
Indications & Warning
The key warning is not that Mexican cartels suddenly acquired drones from Ukraine.
They did not need to.
Mexican criminal organizations had already been weaponizing commercially available drones for years.
The more consequential development is the possibility that cartel personnel are now deliberately seeking battlefield expertise from one of the most drone-intensive conflicts in modern history and transferring that knowledge back into criminal organizations.
The evolution from basic IED drones, to aerial bombardment, to immersive FPV kamikaze systems demonstrates how commercial technology can progress into increasingly sophisticated irregular-warfare capabilities.
Continued monitoring of cartel FPV operations, foreign combat experience, drone-training networks, counter-UAS adaptation, and the transfer of Ukrainian battlefield TTPs into Mexico is therefore warranted.
Download the Full C/O Futures Research Note
The complete C/O Futures Cartel Research Note provides the full analysis underlying this assessment, including source reporting, imagery, the evolution of Mexican cartel weaponized drone tactics, Ukrainian training concerns, and discussion of future FPV technological developments.
Related C/O Futures Research
This later C/O Futures imagery-archive analysis examines reported Mexican cartel drone-on-drone kinetic activity and provides additional evidence of how battlefield drone tactics associated with the Russo-Ukrainian conflict may be appearing within Mexican cartel warfare.
This C/O Futures analysis revisits the early identification of FPV racing drones configured as expendable weapon systems and places their subsequent large-scale battlefield adoption in Ukraine into a longer conceptual history.
This earlier analysis documents CJNG's transition toward aerial bombardment using weaponized drones against Mexican federal law enforcement personnel—an important stage in the evolution toward current FPV systems.
This C/O Futures Cartel Research Note examines the first reported use of weaponized drones by the Sinaloa Cartel and the continuing diffusion of aerial weapon systems among competing Mexican criminal organizations.
This C/O Futures research note examines evidence of CJNG's specialized drone-operator capability and the formalization of drone personnel within the cartel's operational structure.
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