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Sputnik – 20.10.2026
“It’s quite possible that these facts could serve as a tool to exert pressure on the Kiev regime,” but the US government “will never publicly acknowledge that they have leveraged drug cartels to further their own interests,” RAS Institute of Latin America senior researcher Alexander Stepanov told Sputnik.
Commenting on the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service’s report that the US is looking into the deployment of 80+ cartel members to Ukraine for drone training, Stepanov said he suspects Washington won’t take any substantive measures “because the criminal networks and cartels operating in the Western Hemisphere are affiliated with the US intelligence community.”
“These groups serve as proxy instruments for the US, deployed when necessary to pressure opposing governments and act as a key destabilizing factor – thus creating opportunities for the US to exert influence over the region.”
US intelligence even “oversees the recruitment of individuals from these cartels, categorizing them based on technical proficiency, equipment, and intended use,” Stepanov pointed out, highlighting the historical use of American prisons for this purpose, and the fact that “virtually the entire leadership of Mexico’s cartels comes from security or military backgrounds, including the special forces.”
Possessing “the necessary skills, training and discipline,” gang members are “ideal mercenaries,” and deployment in Ukraine for drone training will allow them to transfer their skills back home as instructors at specialized paramilitary training centers affiliated with US intel agencies.
The drone link is also “only part of the picture,” Stepanov said, pointing to “deeper and more pervasive” links involving the transfer of arms sent to Ukraine by NATO to Latin America’s cartels, and to terror groups like those active in the Sahel region today – complete with Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate training assistance.
Ukraine is also “leveraging its capabilities, intelligence structures and affiliated networks of organized criminal groups that have taken root in Europe to facilitate the distribution of narcotics, with Mexican drug cartels serving as their primary suppliers,” Stepanov believes.
In his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK’s intelligence service, MI5, warned that AI had the potential to ‘change the stakes’ on existing and even new bioweapons. To find out why, and how, Ian Sample speaks to Dr Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He explains what has governments so worried and what measures could be put in place to reduce the risks
Could AI ‘change the stakes’ in the development of bioweapons?
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© Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
The bestselling author says her books will no longer be supplied to UK bookshops over fears of prosecution. Zoe Williams and Haroon Siddique report
For now there might be a copy or two of Intermezzo left kicking around in your local bookshop – snap it up if you haven’t already, because soon that will be it.
Last year, Sally Rooney said she would be using her royalties to support Palestine Action, a group that is proscribed as a terrorist organisation under UK law. Since then, thousands of people have been arrested for supporting the group. Now, faced with the risk of prosecution under terrorism legislation, Rooney and her publishers have decided to stop supplying her books to retailers in the UK.
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© Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
© Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
© Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
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