A militant is standing in a field camp during combat when, suddenly, an improvised air-dropped munition explodes inside the camp. It was released from a commercial drone operated by a rival group.

At first glance, the scene sounds like something from the war in Ukraine or a conflict zone in West Africa. But this happened in January 2022 in Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, Mexico, and it marked one of the first widely documented instances of drone-related combat in the Mexican drug war.

The background of the conflict

Officially, the Mexican drug war began in 2006, when President Felipe Calderón declared war on several cartel organizations. Since then, the Mexican armed forces and organized crime groups have been locked in a prolonged and brutal conflict. Over more than two decades, the violence has killed hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and reshaped large parts of the country’s security landscape.

During this period, both the military and the cartels have been engaged in an arms race. That competition has not only shaped clashes between cartels and the Mexican state, but also conflicts between rival criminal organizations. As weapons, tactics and technology have evolved, drones have become one of the clearest signs of this new phase of cartel warfare.

The use of drones

The most widespread footage of cartel drone use on social media generally shows drones dropping explosive devices. Since 2022, these drone-dropped bomb strikes have become one of the defining features of the conflict.

But explosives are not the only documented use. Cartel organizations have also used drones for reconnaissance, allowing them to monitor rival groups, security forces and terrain from above. There have also been documented cases suggesting drones are being used for logistics, pointing to a more complex drone command infrastructure than previously understood.

One particularly gruesome case reportedly involved a cartel using a drone to drop the severed head of a rival cartel member. The incident, which circulated on social media, showed a new and horrifying form of cartel brutality, combining psychological warfare with emerging battlefield technology.

Together, these examples suggest that drones are no longer a novelty in the Mexican drug war. They are becoming part of a broader tactical ecosystem, used not only to attack, but also to intimidate, surveil and move supplies.

The future of the conflict

As of now, no cartel organization appears to have mastered the use of FPV drones. That has been a blessing for Mexico’s armed forces. FPV drones have transformed modern battlefields elsewhere, particularly in Ukraine, where they are used with devastating precision against vehicles, troops and fixed positions.

But the absence of widespread FPV drone use in Mexico does not mean cartels have not tried. Since 2025, there have been at least two recorded cases of cartel organizations attempting to use FPV drones. There have also been reports of cartel members sending volunteers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine to learn FPV drone methodology.

If those efforts continue, the first successful cartel FPV drone strike may not be a question of whether it happens, but when. The Mexican drug war has already shown how quickly criminal groups can absorb new tools and adapt them to their own conflicts. Drone warfare is now part of that evolution, and its next phase could be even more dangerous.