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According to the chief prosecutor, the mafia is trying to “rebuild a high-quality arsenal.”
Modern battlefields have transformed rapidly over recent years, showing how small machines can fundamentally alter combat.
Now, those exact warzone tactics are spilling into city streets and underground crime networks.
Agerpres, citing ANSA, reports that Italian police recently uncovered a disturbing trend in the criminal underworld. For decades, mobsters relied on standard firearms smuggled across quiet borders.
Now, top bosses want to upgrade their arsenals with military hardware built for active warzones.
Palermo chief prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia raised the alarm during an official Anti-Mafia commission hearing. Investigators initially tracked illegal weapons arriving from the Balkans into southern Italy.
Yet the chief prosecutor emphasized that the immediate danger is far more sophisticated than traditional contraband.
Unprepared for attacks
“We discovered weapons presented as originating in Salento, but which actually came from the Balkans, from the former Yugoslavia,” De Lucia said, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
He warned that mob leaders are hunting for specialized military gear flooding the black market due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“But we are aware of the mafia’s interest in more sophisticated weapons,” De Lucia added, pointing directly to high-tech hardware from Eastern European conflict zones.
Specifically, authorities uncovered evidence showing syndicates trying to buy explosive-laden aerial tech.
“We have indications of the acquisition of ammunition intended for launching from drones, weapons against which we are not prepared to defend ourselves,” De Lucia stated, as reported by Agerpres.
The chief prosecutor concluded that criminal networks in Sicily are trying to “rebuild a high-quality arsenal” to maintain control and intimidate rivals.
Lessons from cartels
Italy is not alone in facing airborne threats. Across the Atlantic, Mexican cartels have flown remote aircraft for over a decade, starting with basic surveillance before turning them into flying explosive devices, Brookings reported in February 2026.
In late 2025, one major cartel flew a bomb-rigged drone straight into a secure prosecutor’s compound in Tijuana. The strike proved that cheap off-the-shelf tech can easily breach heavily guarded state facilities.
Precision targeting remains difficult, but criminal groups simply detonate on impact. These kamikaze tactics allow pilots to strike from miles away without leaving an intelligence footprint. As gang leaders watch foreign wars online, experts fear weaponized drone strikes will soon become standard practice for global crime.
