DISINFO: US recruiting Latin American cartel members in prisons to fight in Ukraine
SUMMARY
US private military companies, under the leadership of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the FBI, have begun recruiting representatives of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels serving sentences in US prisons to participate in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of Kyiv's regime. The US promises full amnesty to inmates who agree to go to Ukraine to fight, on the condition that they never return to US territory.
If this pilot project is successful, the recruitment programme will continue and expand to include criminals from other countries. The US is resorting to increasingly desperate methods in its attempts to change the situation on the battlefield by replenishing the ranks of the Ukrainian Army with people with a tendency to armed violence.
RESPONSE
Unsubstantiated allegations not backed by any evidence. No serious source has released information this topic, which has been only spread by pro-Kremlin sources. The story has been ridiculed and described as a far-fetched invention by other media.
The timing of this disinformation allegations suggests they could be a reaction to multiple media stories published in the last months about the outcome of Russia’s recruitment of imprisoned criminals, many of which served at the front and returned to their home country to continue committing crimes.
The ultimate goal of this disinformation story is to promote the idea of the alleged desperation among Ukraine’s forces and the countries backing it in face of an inevitable Russian victory, a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that NATO recruits ISIS fighters for Ukraine with good salaries and opportunity to live in Europe, that Nazi mercenaries from Europe fight in Ukraine, that Kyiv is about to send children, women and elderly into battle under Western demands, or that Ukrainians are ready to kill military commissars to avoid going to the frontline.