Explained: Why NIA Arrested VanDyke and 6 Ukrainians from North East India?
India’s NIA busted an international network by arresting seven foreign nationals, including American operative VanDyke, for allegedly training insurgent-linked groups.
In mid-March 2026, a covert international network unraveled in India.
On 13 March, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested seven foreign nationals—six Ukrainians and one American, VanDyke—in a sweeping counter-terror operation spanning multiple airports. What seemed like routine detentions quickly revealed a far more complex story.
VanDyke was no ordinary traveler. A Georgetown-trained security studies graduate, he once aspired to join the CIA but never made it past the final hurdle. Instead, he carved a different path—moving through conflict zones, from Iraq to Libya, where he fought alongside rebels, survived captivity, and emerged from war both hardened and connected.
In 2014, he founded Sons of Liberty International, an organization that operated in the gray zone between training force and private militia. Over time, its footprint expanded—from anti-ISIS efforts to involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, and eventually into regions tied to Russian influence.
By late 2025, Indian intelligence began noticing a pattern: foreign nationals entering India on tourist visas, moving quietly through Guwahati and Mizoram, and slipping into restricted zones. They carried advanced drones and crossed illegally into Myanmar, where they allegedly trained Ethnic Armed Groups—some with links to insurgents in India’s Northeast.
The arrests came just as the group was preparing to exit India—VanDyke in Kolkata, others in Delhi and Lucknow.
Days later, the NIA called it what it appeared to be: part of a larger international conspiracy with potential terror links. A special court granted custody, citing national security concerns, as investigators raced to map the network’s true scale.
The fallout quickly went global. The United States acknowledged the detention of its citizen. Ukraine confirmed its nationals were involved. But key questions remain unanswered:
How deep does this network run—and who else is part of it?
