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U.S. air and naval forces will head to the Southern Caribbean Sea under President Donald Trump’s directive for the Pentagon to launch operations against Latin American drug cartels, according to Reuters.
Officials familiar with the plan told Reuters the Defense Department began moving troops after Trump ordered action against “specially designated narco-terrorist organizations” in the region.
The move follows a recent executive order allowing U.S. forces to conduct anti-cartel missions in foreign countries, The New York Times reported.
The administration has not identified which cartels are targeted, though the U.S. previously designated seven Mexican cartels and two international criminal gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. The deployment toward the South Caribbean suggests a focus on Central and South America.
Venezuela has drawn heightened attention from Trump, who designated the Tren de Aragua gang and the Cartel de los Soles as terrorist groups. The U.S. has accused Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro of ties to transnational crime, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying the DEA seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, including nearly seven tons connected to him directly.
Trump has increased pressure on Maduro, raising a bounty on him to $50 million. Bondi alleged Maduro used Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel to traffic drugs into the U.S.
“For over a decade, Maduro has been a leader of Cartel de los Soles, which is responsible for trafficking drugs into the United States. On July 25, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Cartel de Los Soles as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT),” the Department of State and Department of Justice announced.
Mexico will not be part of the deployments, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said last week, stressing U.S. troops will not operate inside her country. She said she was briefed on Trump’s plan but “absolutely ruled out” any such agreement.
Trump has already used the U.S. military at the southern border to counter illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Military assets have also been deployed to conduct aerial surveillance of Mexican cartels, gathering intelligence on fentanyl and other drug shipments bound for the United States.