No evidence Ukraine sold US weapons to Mexican cartels, militant groups
- Various claims made online accuse Ukraine of selling weapons provided by the United States and other countries on the black market amid the war between Russia and Ukraine.
- These accusations may be connected to Russian disinformation. A 2022 BBC investigation found what appeared to be Russians posing as Ukrainian weapons vendors on the dark web. Research from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a nongovernmental organization, found most purported instances of online illicit arms dealing by Ukraine were either scams or “Russian information operations to discredit Kyiv.”
- Specific claims about weapons ending up in Mexico, Gaza or Syria are also not based on fact. While data shows more than half of the guns seized in Mexico were manufactured or legally moved through the U.S., only 3.5% of them — 618 guns — in 2023 could be traced from a U.S. firearms licensee to a foreign actor. Claims about weapons ending up with Hamas appear based on misinformation and the rumor about Ukraine’s American weapons in Syria likely began with an Iranian official who did not cite his sources.
- Finally, a 2024 report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime found no confirmed reports of arms trafficking out of Ukraine. While there have been isolated incidents of stolen Ukrainian weapons, most weapons seized and sold on the black market in Ukraine are Soviet or Russian weapons. The U.S. and Ukraine work together to track weapons sent to Ukraine; while tracking can be spotty, there are no confirmed reports of illicit arms trafficking out of Ukraine into other countries.
Just months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, rumors began spreading online that Ukraine sold weapons provided by the United States and other Western countries on the black market to various militant and criminal groups.
As early as June 2022, BBC reported that Russian state TV “routinely runs stories claiming Ukraine is selling weapons supplied by the West” on the dark web, a part of the internet not visible to search engines and home to online black markets. According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, news reports have claimed weapons from the war in Ukraine were “finding their way to Finnish gangsters, French rioters, Nigerian fighters and the Mexican cartels.”
More recently, on Feb. 10, 2025, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson claimed the “Ukrainian military is selling American weapons systems on the black market, including to drug cartels” on the U.S.-Mexico border (see 31:40 below).
Snopes readers also asked via email whether Ukraine sold American weapons on the black market or to various militant or criminal groups, including Hamas, Syrian rebel groups and Mexican drug cartels.
These claims are not backed by credible evidence and may be part of a Russian disinformation campaign. While it is not possible to definitively disprove that U.S. or European weapons sent to Ukraine have ended up in the hands of militant or criminal groups, the information available suggests these rumors are not founded in truth; reports from reputable researchers have found “no instances of arms trafficking of weapons out of Ukraine.” Furthermore, the Ukrainian government is not only eschewing any participation in selling U.S. weapons, it is attempting to disrupt or block any illicit arms trafficking happening in Ukraine.
However, arms trafficking by criminals is still a legitimate potential issue within Ukraine — as it usually is in regions of conflict.
A Russian disinformation campaign
In a 2022 BBC report, journalists went undercover on the dark web to debunk accusations made by Russian state media about Ukraine’s purported illicit weapons sales. The report found multiple inconsistencies casting doubt on these accusations; for example, some sellers mentioned by Russian media posted manipulated images of Syrian weapons to pass them off as Ukrainian.
Furthermore, BBC showed its conversations with purported Ukraine weapons sellers to linguists, who determined that “there is substantial evidence that the messages written in Ukrainian were translated from Russian with the help of an online translator.” Examples included numerous grammatical errors and typos which “meant the online translator could not understand them, and left the original words” in Russian written with Russian letters.
BBC also spoke with a cybercrime intelligence company that determined it was not clear whether the ads were created by Russian actors or whether independent scammers first created them — but “the timing and the similarity of claims made by Russian state media outlets suggest that it could be an organised disinformation campaign.”
Similarly, research by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, an international nongovernmental organization, found the “overwhelming majority of activity” on the dark web connected to illicit arms dealing from Ukraine is fake — and are either “Russian information operations to discredit Kyiv, or simply scams” (see Page 24 of this March 2023 report).
Claims about Ukraine’s US weapons in Syria, Gaza and Mexico
It is not clear whether specific reports about Ukraine selling weapons to Mexican drug cartels, Hamas, a militant group in Gaza at war with Israel, or Syrian rebels started as Russian disinformation. However, it is true that these claims are not supported by evidence.
Carlson, for example, did not cite any sources when claiming that Ukraine’s American weapons ended up on the U.S.-Mexico border. Logistically, however, it would be much easier for Mexican cartels to procure illicit weapons directly from the United States or neighboring Latin American countries, rather than shipping them from Ukraine.
In fact, there is plenty of evidence that Mexican drug cartels procure many of their weapons from the United States. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Explosives shows that in 2023, 49% of weapons seized in Mexico were manufactured in the United States and an additional 19.3% were legally imported into the United States using a federal firearms license — but only 3.5%, or 618 guns, could be traced from a U.S. firearms licensee “to a foreign government, law enforcement, dealer or entity.”
If Ukraine sold “up to half” the weapons it received from the United States, as Carlson claimed, the percentage of guns traced to foreign actors would be expected to jump exponentially starting in 2022 or 2023, given the United States’ ramp up in weapons aid to Ukraine after Russia’s February 2022 invasion. This is not the case — in 2021, for example, 3.4% of U.S.-sourced guns could be traced to foreign actors, showing only a 0.1 percentage point increase from 2021 to 2023.
ATF data compiled by the Wilson Center, which provides nonpartisan counsel to Congress, shows most illicit weapons seized in Mexico can be traced to Southwest border states; Texas alone accounts for 38% of firearms found in Mexico traced back to the United States. As of this writing, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit brought by Mexico against American gun manufacturers over their alleged complicity in weapons smuggling at the border.
Furthermore, there have been numerous efforts by reputable news organizations to debunk various claims attempting to suggest Ukraine sells arms to Hamas.
For example, the Netherlands-based news outlet Bellingcat said in an Oct. 10, 2023, X post that a “fake BBC video circulating on social media falsely claiming that Bellingcat has verified Ukrainian weapons sales to Hamas” is a “fabrication.” Bellingcat’s founder, Eliot Higgins, said an X post about the video that it is “unclear if this is a Russian government disinformation campaign or a grassroots effort, but it’s 100% fake.”
Finally, the claim about American weapons sent to Ukraine ending up in Syria appeared to originate from Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Mojitaba Damirchilo, who claimed in Iranian state media that Ukraine sent U.S. weapons to “terrorist groups” in Syria. As noted by Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda, Damirchilo cited “unnamed and unverified reports.” Iran has allied with Russia in its war with Ukraine.
Arms trafficking in Ukraine limited to isolated incidents
By and large, “the conflict in Ukraine is absorbing weapons, not releasing them,” according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. “The intensity of the fighting in the east and south has resulted in materiel being used as soon as it arrives,” the organization found.
The U.S. Department of Defense and Ukraine also work together to track American arms sent to Ukraine and where they end up. Detailed investigations and oversight reports on Ukraine-related spending can be found on the U.S. government’s Ukraine Oversight webpage.
Officials under both former President Joe Biden‘s and President Donald Trump‘s administrations have contradicted claims that the United States doesn’t know where its aid to Ukraine is going.
Biden’s undersecretary of defense for policy, Colin H. Kahl, said in 2023 that “we think the Ukrainians are using properly what they’ve been given.” Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Gen. Keith Kellogg, said on Feb. 5, 2025, that “we have put inspector generals in the ground in Ukraine, in Europe to track that money and we have a pretty good idea where it’s going” (see 2:18).
Despite assurances otherwise, there is evidence that the United States and Ukraine do not know where some of the weapons America sends to Ukraine are ending up. A 2024 Department of Defense audit report found the agency failed to properly track $1 billion worth of military equipment sent to Ukraine; the Pentagon’s poor accounting is a known issue that extends far beyond Ukraine.
However, a Defense Department spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, said shortly after the report published that “there remains no credible evidence of illicit diversion of U.S.-provided, advanced conventional weapons from Ukraine.” “We do see some instances of Russia continuing to spread disinformation to the contrary,” he added.
A 2022 report from the Pentagon’s inspector general found that criminals, volunteer fighters and arms traffickers in Ukraine stole some American-provided weapons and equipment, but the items were recovered by Ukraine’s security service (pages 7 and 8). The report, titled “The DoD’s Accountability of Equipment Provided to Ukraine,” does not list any militant groups or locations outside of Ukraine or Russia as places where these weapons were intended to go or ended up in.
Finally, a June 2024 report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime found no “confirmed instances of arms trafficking of weapons out of Ukraine.” Most weapons seized and sold on the black market in Ukraine are “overwhelmingly Soviet- or Russian-type trophy weapons captured on the battlefield or taken from weapons dumps, although there have been isolated attempts to steal Western weapons,” the report found (see Page 6). (A weapons or ammunition dump is a designated area where weapons or ammo are stored by militaries.)
Still, the initiative’s report warned that “as with the war itself, the governing conditions of illegal weapons may quickly change,” and “the lack of current activity does not imply an absence of risk” (pages 29 and 7).
In conclusion, there is no credible evidence that American weapons sent to Ukraine are ending up in Mexico, Syria, Gaza or any location outside of Ukraine, and claims otherwise may be attributed to Russian disinformation campaigns. The United States and Ukrainian governments have attempted strict oversight of their weapons — to mixed results — but any arms trafficking happening in Ukraine appears, as of this writing, to be contained to isolated incidents by criminals.
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