Armed drone use by criminal organizations is spreading rapidly across Latin America, and governments are struggling to keep pace, according to a new report from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). The group recorded roughly 670 armed-drone events across the region since 2018, but more than 72 percent occurred between January 2025 and August 2026 alone.
The shift was starkly visible last October during “Operation Containment” in Rio de Janeiro, when roughly 2,500 police and soldiers moved against the Comando Vermelho criminal organization in the city’s favelas. Footage captured a bomb falling from a drone toward security forces; dozens were killed in the operation overall.
Criminal drone use in the region began modestly, smuggling contraband into Brazilian prisons, but has since evolved into surveillance, attacks, and coordination, according to Paddy Ginn, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
“We are seeing a clear transition from the experimental use of drones by criminal groups toward structured and repeatable operational use.”
The trend is most advanced in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. In Mexico, cartels have used drones for attacks for five to six years, dropping improvised explosives on rivals and monitoring police patrols, according to Ginn. David Mora, a Mexico analyst at Crisis Group, says the technology has grown more sophisticated, with commercial delivery drones now adapted to carry larger explosive payloads.
Colombia has become what ACLED calls the epicenter of drone warfare in the region, with 97 of 182 municipalities recording armed-drone events, concentrated in rural areas near coca-growing zones. In the Catatumbo region, guerrilla units are equipping drones with thermal imaging for surveillance, while coordinated drone attacks are increasingly used to intimidate communities and undermine trust in security forces.
Governments are responding with new countermeasures. Brazil has launched a dedicated drone unit within its police intelligence operations. Mexico has deployed 165 counter-drone systems along its northern border, and U.S. forces used a laser system for the first time last week to shoot down three drones linked to Mexican cartels near the Texas border. Colombia has arranged to borrow surveillance drones from the U.S. to monitor trafficking corridors.
Still, Ginn cautions that responses remain inconsistent region-wide, since criminal innovation often moves faster than regulation.
The human cost has fallen heavily on civilians. In Haiti, a Human Rights Watch report found security force drone strikes killed at least 1,243 people between March 2025 and January 2026, including 43 civilians and 17 children. A separate 2025 report found drone attacks have contributed to displacing more than 54,000 people in Colombia’s Catatumbo region alone.
Experts say there’s no single fix. As Ginn puts it, drones aren’t just a technology problem, they’re part of a broader pattern of criminal innovation that demands a coordinated response across regulation, intelligence, and enforcement.
