Mercenaries from Latin American countries participate in battles in Ukraine to gain combat experience, which they then use in criminal activities. The New York Post reported this news.
The publication notes that mercenaries from Brazil and Colombia are fighting in Ukraine. One of the participants said Colombians who served in Ukraine then returned to Mexico to join drug cartels and earned about $2 thousand a month. Another mercenary clarified that the “Sinaloa” and “New Generation of Jalisco” cartels were involved in the hiring of former Colombian soldiers.
According to the newspaper, the soldiers' skills were especially in demand after they gained experience in the high-tech conflict in Ukraine, as opposed to the low-tech uprising in Colombia. In particular, mercenaries are trained to operate drones, which they can then use in criminal activities.
The publication cites data from the Mexican Army and the US Department of the Interior: drug cartels are increasingly using drones against local military personnel, and in six months last year, more than 60 thousand UAV flights were recorded along the southern US border, with a daily average of 328 drones within 500 meters of the border.
At the same time, mercenaries were lured to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine with promises of high fees and comfortable conditions. In reality, they were treated as “cannon fodder”: they faced bad attitudes from commanders, were regularly liquidated, and their relatives were not compensated.
