How drones are being used globally: in conflicts and by criminals

0:00This message comes from Carvana. Finance and buy your next vehicle with Carvana. Shop a huge selection, customize terms to fit your budget, and buy completely online. No hassle, no pressure. Get the car you love the easy way with Carvana. Today on State of the World, how drones are being used globally in conflicts and by criminals.

0:25You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. Drone technology is quickly shaping the way wars are fought. We've been hearing about this recently as Iran uses them to strike targets in the Gulf. Unmanned drones are easy to mass produce, can travel long distances, and they strike with precision. And they're much cheaper than missiles. So cheap, they're not just being used in war, but also in criminal enterprises in places like Latin America. In today's episode, we're going to hear from three NPR correspondents about how militarized drones are being used around the world.

1:08We'll hear about drug cartels in Mexico and a paramilitary group in Sudan. And we start in one of the first conventional wars to be changed by drones in Ukraine with NPR's Joanna Kikisis. You are hearing a Sting drone made by the Ukrainian company Wild Hornets and featured in this promotional video. Sting. Shahhead Interceptor. This small drone hunts and destroys Iranian-designed Shahed drones, which Russia uses to attack Ukrainian cities nearly every night. Yuri Cheruvashenko is deputy commander of Ukraine's Air Defense Cover Forces, and he sees interceptor drones in action. When these drones go on combat duty, we see in real time what needs to be changed.

2:02Hundreds of Ukrainian companies produce drones. Many are used in air operations. On the Black Sea, there are marine drones equipped with machine guns. And on land, Ukrainian forces use ground drones, which resemble small tractors in sound like this. Ukraine's 93rd Brigade showed us their land drones in eastern Ukraine. NPR is using military call signs to identify the soldiers at the request of the Ukrainian military, which cites security concerns. DOSENT is the engineer in charge of the unit's ground drones. What do these here usually carry? Food, water, ammunition, but we can do some things like big bada boom.

2:51Like carrying explosives into enemy positions. The ground drones can also bring back wounded Ukrainian soldiers. That's why they help us very much. Because sometimes we can't get to remote places, but they can. Drones are everywhere here and they have redrawn the map of the front line and the war itself. This is NPR's Joanna Kakissis reporting from Ukraine. Firefighters tackled the blaze at the brutal scene of a drone attack at a market in central Sudan in late February. Local media filmed emergency responders searching through torched stores in El Obed city where nine people were killed. This is the daily terror of drone strikes, haunting everyday life and the new phase of the conflict across Sudan, especially in the central Kordofan region, now a key battleground between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary rapid support forces.

3:52These strikes have become a major feature of the almost three-year conflict that has caused the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Both sides are fighting to control the strategic region that could turn the war in either's favour, with the Sudanese army recording gains in recent months. But in the shifting front lines of Sudan's drawn warfare, civilians are often the victims. Last year, NPR reported from Akbar, a city in central Sudan that had become a safe haven during the war, until waves of RSF drone strikes hit displacement camps and public infrastructure. At the Akbar power station, workers rushed to rebuild a transmission destroyed from drone strikes the day before.

4:34But just days after, it was hit again. Dr. Lad Serwat is a senior Africa analyst at Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, an independent conflict monitoring group. During the early parts of the war in Sudan, the Sudanese armed forces held aerial superiority through their use of jets as well as through drones. However, over the course of the conflict, the warring rapid support forces have also gained increased stock and increased their use of drones. He said this year, there's been a surge in attacks. In the early months of of 2026, ACLA data has already recorded more drone strikes in Sudan than any previous quarter in the war so far.

5:18And as both sides use drones to minimize casualties among their ranks, it's the civilians that are increasingly vulnerable. Emmanuel Akinwatu, NPR News, Lagos. In Mexico, drones became news in February when airspace over El Paso in rural New Mexico was closed after U.S. authorities used an anti-drone laser across the border in the U.S. Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bergman, who also chairs New Mexico's Organized Crime Commission, says drones are a huge problem. We are very concerned, extremely concerned about the number of drones driven by cartels crossing the border on a daily basis.

5:59He says the number of drones crossing the border into the U.S. has increased in the past year or so, and it's all kinds. Drones that are purchased in stores, they modify their capacity to carry payloads. Some of them, says Bergman, drop off drugs. Others are used by human smugglers to monitor American law enforcement. Mexican authorities, on the other hand, say drones have been used by cartels since 2010, but not along the U.S. border. Instead, they are being used inside Mexico to move drugs and drop bombs. On the outskirts of Juarez, just across the border from New Mexico, we asked around to see if anyone had seen drones flying around the border.

6:42Everyone says the same. The only drones they've ever seen are the ones Mexican police or military use to investigate murders. Teresa Renteria sells used clothes a stone's throw from where the airspace was closed. And she thinks this whole drone thing is a political ploy.

7:04It's the American government, she says, trying to start trouble here. They're trying to mess with us here in Mexico. President Trump, she says, has been threatening American military action, and cartel drones could prove the perfect excuse. I ask her if that doesn't scare her.

7:25We are scared, she says, because we know that old man will betray us. Trump, she said, will do anything to take advantage. Ada Peralta, NPR News, Juarez. We also heard from NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu and Joanna Kikisis.

7:47And that's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening. These days, it feels like the news changes every hour. Well, NPR has a podcast that does that too. NPR News Now brings you a fresh five-minute episode every hour of the day with the latest, most important headlines in episodes that are clear, fact-based, and easy to digest. Listen to NPR News Now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.