Is Ukraine Training Drug Cartel Mercenaries From Latin America?

Authored by Liz Heflin via Remix News,

Recent reports highlight that some individuals, including those with criminal connections, have come to Ukraine to gain experience with drones, learning advanced tactics and hoping to take that knowledge back to their criminal bosses.

It has been well documented that many foreigners, including Latin Americans, have gone to fight in Ukraine. Some go for the paycheck, others for the cause — Ukrainian independence. 

Some apparently were not prepared for all-out war. “There have been instances where, after facing intense combat, some Colombians decided to leave,” reads a CEPA article from October 2024. 

That same article does note one Colombian who told CEPA “he has heard from home that the cartels in Colombia have already taken lessons from the war in Ukraine, and are using First Person View (FPV) drones to strike at the army and police.” 

Rumors that Ukraine directly recruits mercenaries from drug cartels in Latin America have others crying disinformation, although they admit there have been “isolated cases.”

French outlet Intelligence Online, cited by a Russian website, The Insider, reported in July that Mexican intelligence had warned its Ukrainian counterpart that cartel members from Mexico and Colombia had signed up to serve in Ukraine to gain specialized drone training to take back home and use for “foreign criminal organizations.”

They also mention a Mexican and Colombian company by name, one of which popped up in Polish customs reports; both are linked to drug trafficking. Investigation into this report is supposedly ongoing. 

As to such reports being disinformation, a website linked directly to the Russian military does not help dispel this claim. The content appears to be all AI-generated, complete with a byline photo for several articles that looks almost identical (middle-aged White man in dark suit) and with a similar vanilla American name (John Baker, William Moore, Fred Turner). The brief piece linked above from September pushes the line that Ukraine is actively recruiting from criminal groups. 

Hector Bernal, a military instructor, poses for a photo in La Mesa, Colombia, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. Bernal, a retired combat medic who runs a center for tactical medicine outside Bogotá, says that in the last eight months he’s trained more than 20 Colombians who later went on to fight in Ukraine. He says that a professional soldier who has six years in the army doesn’t make more than $600 a month in Colombia, but in Ukrain,e the soldiers are being paid $3,000 to $4000 a month. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

“Former Colombian officer says Ukraine enlists mercenaries from cartels and guerrilla groups like FARC and ELN, seeking combat training to aid criminal networks,” the lead reads. 

This line was parroted by a Bulgarian site, which went on to say that Colombian President Gustavo Petro had urgently called for a law banning mercenary activity, effectively joining the 1989 convention that prohibits and punishes the recruitment, use, financing, and training of mercenaries. 

Petro did make such a proclamation. But it was in response to Colombian mercenaries serving in Sudan’s notorious RSF, with these Colombians reportedly even being involved with training child soldiers. Oddly, and somewhat embarrassingly for Colombia — and Petro — Colombia reportedly already knew about their citizens in the RSF and issued a formal apology to Sudan for their involvement back in December 2024. 

Petro did just a few days ago call for Colombians to return home from Ukraine and to be allowed to do so in the wake of accusations that volunteers were being forced to sign contracts they did not understand (as they were in Ukrainian) and that they are being held against their will. 

“They have practically kidnapped us. They are armed. They have taken photos of us for the police. They don’t want to let us go,” one soldier told Colombia Reports. These volunteer soldiers, which the portal calls “mercenaries,” are claiming to have suffered “the worst humiliation at the hands of the people we came to help.”

President Petro himself posted on X just last week about the situation: “Ukrainians treat Colombians as an inferior race. I ask the Colombian mercenaries, who are being handled like cannon fodder, led by companies guided from Miami, to return to the country immediately.” 

Los ucranianos tratan a los Colombianos como raza inferior. pido a los Colombianos mercenarios,, que los están manejando como carne de cañón, llevados por empresas guiadas. desde Miami, que regresen de inmediato al país pic.twitter.com/gGlDnGMMy9

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 8, 2025

FRANCE 24 Observers team indicated in November 2024 that Ukraine was posting on social media, including in English and Spanish, to attract soldiers from abroad. It also relayed stories of missing Colombian soldiers and distraught families back home. According to their research at the time, 57 Colombians had been killed in Ukraine and 77 were missing at the time. 

This site also notes that Colombia had “proposed legislation that would ban Colombian citizens from fighting in foreign wars” in August of 2024, whereas Petro only posted about it this past August. 

This is unfortunate timing for Zelensky supporters over in Europe, given the EU–CELAC Summit in Colombia next month. Just a couple of days ago, Petro posted photos of his meeting with Ursula von der Leyen, where they were all smiles and full of hope regarding future deals to be done. 

Esperaremos al mundo europeo en Santa Marta. Espero que está inmensa reunión entre América Latina y Europa sea un encuentro de culturas y una alternativa de Nueva Alianza.

Energías limpias, conocimiento, turismo y fibra óptica.

Esperamos al pueblo de Santa Marta en el gran acto… https://t.co/YXQgNOJZzQ

— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 10, 2025

Ukraine is actively recruiting, as proven by its military’s own recruitment site. But their pitch isn’t exactly “free drone training for narco bosses.” Instead, it attempts to inspire Latin Americans to see the Ukrainian cause as their own.

The site claims that thousands of Latin American volunteers have joined the war effort and proceeds to give stories of three Ukrainians “whose names are inscribed in the history of various Latin American countries.”

“Now heroic volunteers from various countries of South America have inscribed their names in the history of Ukraine and are writing a new, perhaps the most important, page in the history of Ukrainian-Latin American relations,” it reads. 

This is a far cry from any direct recruitment from drug cartels. And it certainly does not scream any sort of active collaboration or deal between Ukraine and criminal organizations to help get them drone training or technology. 

FILE – In this May 3, 2020, file photo, Venezuelan security forces guard the shore and a boat in which authorities claim a group of armed men landed in the port city of La Guaira, Venezuela, calling it an armed maritime incursion from neighboring Colombia. A judge in Colombia sentenced three Venezuelan men on Tuesday, May 18, 2021, to six years in prison for helping organize the ill-conceived plot to remove President Nicolás Maduro involving former American Green Berets. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

Unfortunately, for those who do sign up, whether they are official mercenaries for drug lords or simply looking to join the cause, the risks don’t stop once they leave Ukraine — if they leave alive. In the summer of 2024, two Colombians on their way home from Ukraine were detained by Venezuela, where they had a layover. They were immediately sent to Moscow, highlighting Putin’s close alliance with Maduro, where they were charged by Russia for serving as mercenaries fighting against Russia. 

According to TASS, both have pleaded guilty and face up to 15 years in prison.. 

Read more here…

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.