Criminal organizations are increasingly adapting commercial drones across Latin America to bypass security measures, monitor law-enforcement activity, transport illicit materials, and support criminal operations from prisons and remote territories. Their growing accessibility and versatility present an evolving challenge for security, defense, and law enforcement agencies throughout the region.
The threat in Ecuador’s prisons
In late April, Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said that nearly 600 drones linked to organized crime groups had attempted to reach El Encuentro prison since construction of the facility began in June 2024. According to Ecuadorian media reports, criminal organizations have used drones to transport weapons, maintain communication with inmates, and support illicit activities from within prison facilities.
The situation highlights a broader challenge facing Ecuador’s prison system. Since 2018, more than 680 inmates have been killed in violent clashes between criminal gangs inside the country’s prisons, reflecting the growing influence of organized crime both inside and outside correctional facilities.
“Prisons, in practice, are the hubs of criminal operations. Bringing technology, communications, or resources into these spaces strengthens their operational capabilities,” Daniel Potón, dean of the IAEN School of Security and Defense, told Diálogo.
The growing use of drones illustrates how criminal organizations are exploiting the air domain to bypass traditional security measures designed to prevent the movement of people, weapons, and communications on the ground.
Criminal innovation and commercial drones
Recent incidents in Colombia underscore how rapidly criminal and armed groups are expanding their use of commercial drone technology. In May 2026, Colombian authorities neutralized an explosive-laden drone near Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport and the nearby Military Air Transport Command. Investigators linked the device to the Carlos Patiño Front, a dissident structure of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Weeks earlier, a drone attack attributed to Comandos de la Frontera killed three Colombian soldiers near the Ecuadorian border.
In Brazil, criminal organizations have repeatedly used drones to deliver cell phones, drugs, and other contraband into prison facilities, allowing inmates to maintain communications and criminal operations from behind bars. In Mexico, authorities have repeatedly seized drones modified by cartels to carry explosive devices, particularly in states such as Michoacán and Jalisco, where criminal organizations have used them against rival groups and security forces.
Together, these incidents illustrate how commercially available drones are being adapted for surveillance, logistics, and offensive operations by criminal and armed groups across the region.
Available for a fraction of the cost of traditional aviation platforms, these systems provide criminal organizations with capabilities that were once largely reserved for state actors.
“Criminal organizations are extremely innovative. They take advantage of technological advances and exploit legal loopholes or areas with limited state presence,” Potón said.
Unlike traditional smuggling methods, drones can bypass checkpoints, difficult terrain, and physical barriers while reducing the exposure of criminal operatives. Their relatively low cost also allows criminal organizations to absorb losses and quickly replace seized equipment.
Analysts warn that criminal groups continue to expand their use of emerging technologies while governments must invest in increasingly sophisticated detection, monitoring, and counter-drone capabilities, including signal jamming tools, radars, and anti-drone systems. The challenge is particularly acute in strategic areas such as drug-trafficking corridors, illegal mining zones, border regions, and other territories where organized crime seeks to limit state presence and maintain freedom of movement.
Beyond prisons, drones are being used to support criminal activities in remote areas where they can monitor security-force movements, transport small but high-value cargo, and provide situational awareness to criminal networks operating across difficult terrain.
Security forces adapt
In response to the growing threat, Ecuador has expanded the use of technology to strengthen surveillance and monitoring capabilities in strategic areas affected by organized crime. Authorities have incorporated long-range drone systems and other technological tools to improve situational awareness and support security operations. These efforts have been reinforced through cooperation with the United States, which has provided training, intelligence support, security assistance, and funding for unmanned aerial systems and other surveillance capabilities used to counter transnational criminal organizations (TCOs).
Ecuador’s participation in the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition further strengthens this regional response. The initiative brings together partner nations committed to improving coordination, information sharing, and operational cooperation against cartels and narcoterrorist organizations, providing a framework for countries to confront emerging threats — including the criminal use of drones — before they spread across borders.
The Ecuadorian Air Force also deployed the Rayo Justiciero drone squadron in September 2025. By early 2026, the unit had conducted more than 1,120 missions supporting counternarcotics and internal security operations. The drones have been used to detect clandestine airstrips, monitor illegal mining sites, identify trafficking routes, and provide real-time intelligence to military and security forces operating against TCOs.
Across the region, security forces are increasingly adapting to an operating environment in which the low-altitude airspace has become an additional domain exploited by criminal networks. This has driven greater emphasis on intelligence sharing, technological innovation, and the development of counter-drone capabilities.
Lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean
Ecuador’s experience illustrates how relatively inexpensive commercial technologies can significantly expand the operational reach of organized crime.
“Technology as such is one thing, and the way it is adapted for multiple purposes is another. The speed at which organized crime adapts often exceeds the reaction capacity of states,” Potón said.
For security and defense institutions across Latin America and the Caribbean, the challenge is not only to keep pace with technological change but also to anticipate how criminal organizations will adapt emerging technologies to support illicit activities.
Investments in surveillance systems, signal-jamming technologies, intelligence integration, and regional cooperation will be critical to countering these evolving threats.
The challenge is no longer limited to tracking criminal networks on land and at sea. Security forces must now also contend with a rapidly expanding low-altitude air domain where inexpensive commercial technologies can provide criminal organizations with surveillance, communication, and logistical, and offensive capabilities.
