Drones are becoming organized crime’s weapon of choice in Latin America. Governments are struggling to keep up

As some 2,500 heavily armed police officers, soldiers and snipers entered through a maze of narrow streets, intense gunfire could be heard all around. The scene reached its climax when a bomb targeting the security forces was seen falling from the sky, according to footage from the raid last October.

The clip could have been from a war zone, but it happened on the hillsides of Rio de Janeiro, a favorite destination for millions of tourists. The so-called “Operation Containment,” in the favelas of Rio’s Complexo da Penha and Complexo do Alemão, pitted security forces against the networks of one of Brazil’s largest criminal organizations, Comando Vermelho (CV). It left dozens dead and the falling bomb highlighted a concerning phenomenon: the growing use of drones by organized crime.A report by the nongovernmental organization Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) highlights that drone technology is expanding rapidly both within and across borders in Latin America. The report recorded “around 670 armed-drone events since 2018, but more than 72% of these events occurred between January 1, 2025, and August 21, 2026.”In Mexico, a recent wave of attacks involving drones equipped with explosives put authorities on alert. Both Mexico’s Navy and Defense Ministry confirmed to CNN an increase in drone seizures over the past year. In Colombia, the newly inaugurated president faces the growing challenge posed by armed groups, which also use drones in their attacks. Their evolution and advance are accelerating as security forces try to catch up.The first uses of drones for criminal purposes in Latin America were recorded in prisons, mainly in Brazil. “Drones replaced the pigeons that were previously used to deliver messages and small packages, offering greater advantages and easy access to goods on the black market, including weapons, packages of drugs, food, liquor, cellphones and all kinds of contraband that found an aerial route into prisons,” says InSight Crime, a website specializing in investigations into organized crime. Drones attempting to smuggle prohibited goods into prisons have been recorded since 2014. But over the past decade, they have become a standard tool in the criminal world. Paddy Ginn, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), notes that their current use falls into five categories: surveillance, logistics, attack, signaling and coordination.