MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. Mexican drug cartels have become a significant link in the covert financing of sabotage operations against Russia through Ukraine's effectively uncontrolled port infrastructure, Alexander Stepanov, a military expert at the Institute of Law and National Security of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) and senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Latin America, told TASS.
"An important aspect is the covert financing of sabotage operations targeting Russia through drug trafficking networks that have become highly accessible to Mexican criminal syndicates. At the same time, Ukraine's effectively uncontrolled port infrastructure, currently under the supervision of the Kiev regime and operating with virtually no customs or border procedures, is being widely used. It facilitates two-way shipments of various types of weapons, both to Ukraine and to Latin American countries," Stepanov said, commenting on statements issued earlier on Sunday by Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) regarding cooperation between Ukraine and Mexican drug cartels.
The expert recalled that drug cartels now play an important role in recruiting fighters for the Ukrainian armed forces, including from criminal circles in Latin American countries, as well as training new mercenaries by specialists with combat experience, for example in operating UAVs. At the same time, Mexican drug cartel leaders, facing restricted access to the US market, are seeking new trafficking routes by using Ukraine as a logistics hub for redirecting narcotics to Europe.
