April 6, 2026: Over the last few years Colombian police and soldiers have had to deal with drug cartels using drones for surveillance and dropping explosives. The surveillance makes it difficult to carry out raids on cartel locations. If police or military vehicles are approaching a cartel location and drones are spotted, the raid is called off because the criminals can see what’s coming and are preparing an ambush. The soldiers and police also use drones but are prohibited from using them to drop explosives in populated areas. Civilians could be hurt. The cartels don’t mind civilian casualties, as they remind people what will happen to them if they cooperate with the security forces.

The cartels spend a lot more money on purchasing drones in large quantities and always seek and purchase new versions of drones. The cartels can also afford to hire technical experts to upgrade their drones with better surveillance, transportation or bomb dropping capabilities. This enables cartels to suppress military drone activity while cartel drones operate with impunity.

Long before Columbian cartels adopted the use of drones to move drugs, Mexican drug cartels used drones to fly drugs over the U.S. border. The drones transport high value drugs such as cocaine. Using drones to smuggle drugs is inevitable. Drones have a small radar signature. They are cheaper to acquire and use than other options, such as building a long tunnel. The drones can carry small payloads of 2-3 kg but have the endurance and range to fly over a hundred kilometers and land automatically at a specific location. All this is controlled by an onboard flight computer and GPS. Someone on the U.S. side can refuel and launch the drone on a return trip. Such drones can be bought for a few hundred dollars and used dozens of times.