The InSight Take: Organized Crime Adopts the Latest Technologies in the Drone-IED Arms Race
The InSight Take: Organized Crime Adopts the Latest Technologies in the Drone-IED Arms Race Organized crime groups across Latin America are weaponizing commercial drones, pairing them with IEDs to attack rivals, security forces, and civilians. From CJNG's drone unit in Mexico to gang warfare in Rio's favelas and ELN surveillance drones in Colombia, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott joins…
Organized crime groups in Latin America are utilizing advanced technology, such as commercial drones and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), to target rivals, security forces, and civilians. This is part of a broader trend where transnational organized crime seeks to gain an edge by investing in various modern tools to protect their operations and evade law enforcement.
Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, explains that this development is not new but rather a continuation of the use of explosives by powerful criminal organizations like Pablo Escobar's Medellín cartel. The Jalisco cartel in Mexico, for instance, has established a dedicated drone unit that has been dropping IEDs on rivals and security forces for years.
In Colombia, the use of illegal drones has surged, with attacks increasing from 38 in 2020 to 149 in 2021. Governments in the region are attempting to keep pace with this evolving threat by collaborating on drone and counter-drone technology, signing agreements to share resources and equipment with each other.
Written by urgent.news from InSight Crime's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
