Organized Crime in Latin America Increasingly Adopts Drones for Attacks and Logistics

Organized crime groups across Latin America are rapidly expanding their use of drone technology for surveillance, logistics, attacks, signaling, and coordination. A report from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) recorded approximately 670 armed drone incidents since 2018, with more than 72 percent of those events occurring between January 1, 2025, and August 21, 2026. Experts note a transition from experimental use to structured operational use, with the most significant concerns centered in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil.

In Brazil, drones were first used around 2014 to smuggle contraband, such as weapons and drugs, into prisons, replacing the use of carrier pigeons. More recently, during Operation Containment in Rio de Janeiro, security forces fighting the Comando Vermelho were targeted by a bomb dropped from a drone. In Mexico, the Navy and Ministry of Defense have confirmed an increase in drone seizures, noting that cartels use the devices to monitor police patrols and drop improvised explosive devices on rivals. In Colombia, armed groups are similarly utilizing drones in their attacks.

Experts from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Crisis Group highlight that these devices are easily acquired online. Criminal groups often adapt commercial delivery drones to carry larger payloads of explosives. While the trend is most advanced in the three largest regional economies, emerging use has been noted in Guatemala regarding cross border cartel conflicts and in Venezuela through various seizures.