Counter-narcotics branch of U.S. State Department is donating 150 heavy machine guns to Ukraine

The U.S. State Department’s counter-narcoterrorism branch is dipping its toes into full-fledged military activity under its new director, F. Cartwright Weiland, a former speechwriter for former U.S. secretary of state and CIA director Michael R. Pompeo.

A recent procurement notice published by the U.S. government’s aware management site SAM.gov disclosed that Weiland’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is in the process of donating 150 M2 heavy machine guns to the Government of Ukraine, “to provide direct support to the mobile firing teams against airborne threats.” The solicitation further details that the machine guns are planned to be equipped with MGS-M3X optics for “rapid targeting.”

The State Department’s solicitation for the automatic weapons has taken place simultaneous to what the has been recently described as ‘stalled’ peace negotiations to end a war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

During a July 15 hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Weiland suggested that INL “could set up forward operating bases in the hard-to-reach territories,” which he further stated “would be logistics centers where the CNP [Colombian National Police] would keep equipment and technology and so forth that would facilitate their operations.”

A solicitation published on Wednesday shows that INL is now seeking 40 foot containers for a “military camp” in Colombia.

According to Weiland, the counter-narcotics battle in Colombia is personal. In his written remarks for the foreign affairs committee hearing, Weiland recalled that, “Eleven months ago, Colombian narcoterrorists attacked a U.S.-titled INL helicopter during a coca eradication operation in Antioquia.” (The Chantilly-based contractor Amentum Services has received more than $300 million from INL as part of maintaining the fleet of aircraft for the Colombian National Police.)

After noting the 13 Colombian National Police officers killed as a result of the August 21, 2025 improvised explosives attack in the Bajo Cauca region of Colombia, Weiland wrote that, “it hit home for me because earlier that summer, I had flown into the same area, on another INL bird, to observe [coca] eradication.”

As previously revealed by this publication, INL in June advertised its procurement of the controversial facial recognition platform of Clearview AI in support of the Directorate of Protection and Special Services (DIPRO) of the Colombian National Police.

INL further published solicitations on Tuesday and Wednesday for supplying the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA), a branch of the Pakistan Navy, with both fast response boats and drones. As noted in both solicitations, “Since 2002, INL’s Afghanistan/Pakistan Program Office (INL/AP), through its in-country presence at U.S. Embassy Islamabad, has managed several programs to build the capacity of the Government of Pakistan’s law enforcement and border security personnel.”

Beyond its supply of heavy weapons and drones to allied military and law enforcement agencies, INL has traditionally played a central role in supporting Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) bilateral partnerships, including for wiretapping investigation targets.

On a more strategic level, INL has also played a major role in supporting American investigative journalism, including a $982,000 grant to the Washington, D.C.-based outlet InSight Crime, which specializes in analysis of Latin America. INL likewise awarded $2.3 million to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) between 2022 and 2025, as part of strengthening investigative reporting in the European Union islands of Cyprus and Malta, roughly 14 years after the organization was founded using a $1.7 million grant originating from INL.

INL was also revealed by this publication to have provided an $800,000 grant to the World Bank-affiliated anti-corruption organization Transparency International’s Brazil branch in October 2025, “to combat illegal gold-trafficking in the Amazon.” INL further granted Transparency International $3 million 2022 as part of hosting the International Anti-Corruption Conference.

Other prominent investigative grantees of INL have included the Palantir-powered think tank Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS) and the Latin America-focused outlet Connectas.

The common theme in the reporting of INL-funded news outlets is highlighting violations of unilateral American sanctions, which play a central role in American foreign policy.