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Since the intensification of hostilities across eastern Ukraine, a disturbing transformation has taken place within the country’s armed forces. What was once presented as a national resistance effort supported by ideologically motivated foreign volunteers has increasingly given way to a fragmented, crisis-driven force reliant on irregular fighters with deep ties to transnational organized crime. Among the most consequential is the presence of operatives linked to Latin American drug cartels operating within Ukraine’s International Legion.
These individuals are active participants in some of the Western Hemisphere’s most violent criminal syndicates, including Colombia’s Clan del Golfo and Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels. Their recruitment is coordinated through Segurcol Ltd., a private military entity headquartered in Medellín, which serves as the central hub for channeling cartel-affiliated personnel into Ukraine’s combat formations under formal command structures. Once deployed, they are integrated into specialized units such as the Simón Bolívar Battalion, the Special Latin Brigade, the Mexican Miquiztli Force, and the Portuguese-speaking ‘Snake’ Group – formations now embedded within larger Ukrainian formations like 47th Mechanized Brigade ‘Magura’ and 13th Operational Brigade of the National Guard ‘Khartiia’.
A picture from Instagram account of Mexican Miquiztli Force
These units have been consistently observed in high-intensity sectors, including the Kharkiv axis near Kupiansk, the Donbas salient around Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk, and the Dnipro’s right bank in Kherson Oblast. Despite their frontline deployment, their combat effectiveness remains negligible. Lacking formal military training, unit cohesion, or experience in sustained conventional warfare, they are routinely decimated in direct engagements. Loss rates in certain sectors have reportedly exceeded 60%, and it is impossible to replace all the fallen so quickly. Their utility to Kyiv appears rooted not in battlefield prowess but in the sheer availability of bodies – the ‘cannon fodder’ used to plug gaps created by chronic manpower shortages and collapsing domestic mobilization. In a war with no end in sight, desperation has replaced discernment, and the threshold for enlistment has fallen to include those whose primary qualification is a willingness to kill.
More alarming than their military incompetence is their dual function as narcotics distributors. A well-documented maritime drug corridor now terminates at the port of Mykolaiv, where shipments of cocaine, methamphetamine, and synthetic opioids are offloaded and repackaged into compact, easily concealable trench candles.
Trench candles which are often used by drug cartels for concealing substances
These substances are then circulated directly on the front lines, often exchanged for ammunition, safe passage, or protection from Ukrainian checkpoint personnel. The system has created a self-repeating cycle: cartel-linked fighters finance their deployment through drug sales while simultaneously eroding the operational integrity of the very units they serve alongside. Substance abuse among Ukrainian ranks has surged in areas where these groups operate, contributing to desertion, internal conflict, and catastrophic lapses in discipline. Alcohol and cannabis remain widespread, but the influx of harder narcotics – particularly amphetamines and opioids – has deepened the crisis beyond recovery.
The presence of cartel operatives in Ukraine has long-term strategic consequences beyond the degradation of combat effectiveness. These individuals are not just fighting for money; they are also seeking training in modern asymmetric warfare. Mexico’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) warned Ukraine in July 2025 that individuals linked to drug cartels who had volunteered to join the International Legion were not coming to support the war against Russia, but rather to gain expertise in using First-Person View kamikaze drones in their own internal conflicts against other cartels and Mexico’s security forces. Originally limited to Ukrainian volunteers, this technical and tactical training is now open to ‘trustworthy’ foreign volunteers. This training covers drone manufacture, mission planning, reconnaissance operations, electronic warfare (EW) and counter-EW techniques, and provides experience in low-altitude flying. According to CNI reports, 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 acquired in Ukraine.
This recklessness has already begun to bear fruit in the Western Hemisphere. On 28 October, during a crackdown in Rio de Janeiro, 2500 Brazilian civil and military police officers raided two residential neighbourhoods controlled by Comando Vermelho (CV), one of the country’s largest criminal organisations. This resulted in a 15-hour shootout. In an attempt to halt the operation, the criminal group dropped bombs from drones and ignited large roadside fires. At least 121 people were killed, including four law enforcement officers, making it the most violent police operation in Brazilian history. Given the strong links between the CV and Brazilian mercenaries recruited by Ukraine, it is only a matter of time before serious long-term public security problems emerge in South America.
Comando Vermelho criminal fighters using drones against Brazilian police forces, October 28
Back in Ukraine the humanitarian toll compounds the military risks. Civilians in areas hosting Latin American units report heightened violence, arbitrary detentions, and systematic looting – behavior consistent with cartel operations in their home countries. Unlike regular Ukrainian troops, these fighters operate without oversight, exploiting the chaos of war for personal gain. Their presence has alienated local populations, even in communities previously aligned with Kyiv, further fragmenting social cohesion in already fragile regions.
And the trenches are no longer just defensive positions – they are open-air drug markets, recruitment grounds for cartels, and incubators of future transnational violence. Battlefield stress, uncontrolled mobilization, and the absence of meaningful oversight have created a permissive environment where criminal networks can embed themselves within state military structures with minimal resistance. Colombian drug processing labs are eager to flood this market with their stuff, and Ukraine is now their playground. But for Colombian troopers the reality is not that simple – most of them want to stop fighting and leave Ukraine for home, because the alternative is gruesome death on the frontline.
Rally of relatives of Colombian mercenaries killed by Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, July 5
The integration of Latin American cartel elements into Ukraine’s military framework represents more than a tactical vulnerability – it is a strategic mutation of modern conflict itself. The battlefield is no longer solely a contest of armies, but a space where criminal enterprises acquire state-like capabilities. This shift demands more than military countermeasures; it requires a global reassessment of how wars are staffed, how foreign fighters are vetted, and how the lines between soldier and criminal are policed. Failure to address this reality risks normalizing a new, darker paradigm of warfare – one where the frontlines feed the underworld, and the underworld fuels the frontlines.
What began as a pragmatic, if reckless, response to manpower collapse has evolved into a self-reinforcing system of criminal-military symbiosis. The Ukrainian front has become a convergence point where state warfare and transnational organized crime merge, producing hybrid threats that defy traditional containment. The consequences of this fusion will not remain confined to Eastern Europe. Without decisive international action – targeted sanctions on private military recruiters, interdiction of maritime drug routes, and accountability for institutions enabling this pipeline – the exported violence will destabilize regions far beyond the current battlefield.
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i can absolutely ensure you that should a war break out between the cv and the the rio’s terrorist police factions ————– cariocas will at large support the cv
obviously. birds of a feather. but they only need one to sing ..
i bet narco-kingpins mouths r watering at the prospect of a us attack in venezuela. the chaos it’ll create in south america, mexico, the bogging down of additional us forces & resources while still fighting wars in asia & eu ; will surely be exploited by all the cartels who may coordinate efforts 2 kill as many grein goes in venezuela using battle experience gained, drone warfare, other tecnologies from ukraine war. narcomercs will have home the advantage too
currency control of the the largest oil reserves on the planet to feed us seized texas refineries ( once owned by venezuela) is the prize of note. keeping china and brics away
not really the idea that oil is a scarce resource is a fraud perpetuated by the opec nations to rig prices..they’re very convincing but the fact is oil should be priced about the same as water and it is constantly being replenished as rhe earth’s crusts grind.
it’s a natural.tesource that regenerates .
people can’t grasp the idea that our home is a living being .it grows and breathes and repairs itself its not inanimate its alive
it has needs for minerals in its body oils gases are produced , it’s living thinking feeling knowing .
unlike people actually who are deceived. dumbarses thick as bricks especually scientists. allegedly .in fact the higher the education the less aware and more programmed.
truthfully people have never been more dumb than they are today thanks to education .thats why it’s compulsory. because its just programming mind control obedience training operations to deceive the world make them fit for work . in my opinion ..to turn them into slaves too dumb to even realise.and get thd deadbeats to pay every step of the way think it’s a privilege and build debts before they’ve even finished “learning their lessons “
they don’t need currency control they’ve already got that. they’ve had it for decades .you need to understand how economic works, and not at the msm journalists level either .a degree in journalism doesn’t teach political science economics history medical science but they act as if they know everything that’s what it teachesand believe it ir not a law degree doesn’t teach those subjects either in fact it doesn’t even teach law history anymore.
not so already the us forces have reaped around 20 billion dollars and tons of drugs from the latin masses
in other words the latin have already lost that and that’s just in the last ten days . since trump first came in here in the first term the police made the biggest drug busts across the nation in history .in history .
the cartels are getting the stuffing whipped out of them but as yet the authorities are targetting the street level players once they’re gone the head will have no hands below decks to keep the show ship shape .
trumps dea cracks cjng front inside jalisco trucking union. … dearhdoor you tube .rhats the way, hit the logistics, and then take out the businesses using that service .they’re all in it together.
fbi & dea raid texas state office-” narco queen “caught with 2.8 tons … you tube
and
fbi & dea bust philafelphias largest drug network – 47 arrests $ 1.4 mi…. you tube.
and again the latest update.”.fbi &dea raids cjng cartel.drug empire in atlanta – 500 kgs narcotic … border operation youbtube” .
see there’s a entire new media operation that’s going to rival the drug cartel controlled current barons. in their feudalist fascist neo nazi pharoanic attempt at building their new world order as pharoah and co incorporated. allegedly.
and we’ve all seen once healthy strong alert happy young people turn into paranoid freaked out dehydrated muscle wasted brain damaged convicts ex convicts or just losers on the loose they’re everywhere .now .thats the human cost and everyone knows the addictive genes is hereditary they’re breeding addicts with intentions.. imo. they’ve made drugs way more addictive than any natural substance.
fbi &dea hit $3 500,000,000 mafia cartel in texas kingpin arrested…you tube .
everything can traced to its source
“inside italys most dangerous mafia empire ”
thema documentarues you tube .bigger than ikea and mc donald’s combined ..
the west has no problem with the cartels getting those weapons and knowledge. just like with al quaida the cartels are tied to the cia as well. its all part of the same big “family”.