MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. The Kiev regime and Latin American drug cartels are linked not only through the training of militants for operations in Latin America, but also through drug and arms trafficking, Alexander Stepanov, a military expert at the RANEPA Institute of Law and National Security, told TASS.

According to Stepanov, Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is actively expanding its transnational criminal networks, with activities extending beyond Latin America into Africa, Southeast Asia, and Europe.

"Links to criminal structures, international terrorist organizations, and the Kiev junta are quite evident. These involve everything from the supply of illicit substances to the acquisition of weaponry - arms originally sent by NATO countries for use by the Ukrainian military. As we know, small arms and heavy grenade launchers have been discovered in Mexico in the possession of members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel," Stepanov said.

Stepanov, who is also a senior researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), further stated that drug cartels are using Ukraine as a training ground for drone operators, with hundreds of their members traveling there to serve as mercenaries.

Previously, social media accounts covering the activities of Latin American cartels posted a video showing Latin American mercenaries from Mexico, Colombia, and Panama serving alongside Ukrainian forces in a wooded area. In the footage, one of the mercenaries shouts a slogan in support of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Los Chapitos faction.