President Trump accurately identified the threats to the U.S. homeland, saying the flow of illegals is an invasion, the proliferation of fentanyl is an act of war, and the narcotraffickers, responsible for drugs, human trafficking, and destabilizing Latin America, are terrorist organizations. Consequently, he has deployed the U.S. military against them.
The United States has launched one of its largest military deployments to the Caribbean in recent years, aimed at countering Latin American drug cartels designated as global terrorist organizations. President Donald Trump, who has made dismantling these groups central to his border and national security agenda, directed the Pentagon to prepare options for a military response.
The new mission includes more than 4,000 Marines and sailors, the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, along with P-8 surveillance planes, a warship, and an attack submarine. Operating in international waters and airspace, these assets will provide intelligence, surveillance, and potentially targeted strikes against cartel networks.
This escalation follows earlier deployments of two warships for border security and anti-trafficking efforts, as well as increased aerial surveillance of Mexican cartels. In February, the administration officially designated Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, and other regional gangs as global terrorist organizations.
The move signals a dramatic shift from treating drug trafficking primarily as a law enforcement challenge to confronting it as a national security threat requiring direct military intervention.
The current deployment marks an unprecedented concentration of U.S. military power in the Caribbean, combining advanced naval platforms, surveillance aircraft, and thousands of personnel.
The deployment centers on a powerful naval force that includes the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, several destroyers, and a guided-missile cruiser. Among them is the USS Gravely, a destroyer capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, assigned to the southern border as part of President Trump’s broader campaign against cartels.
Aerial surveillance will be provided by several P-8A Poseidons, the Navy’s premier maritime patrol aircraft. Capable of flying at 41,000 feet with a top speed of 490 knots and refueling in-flight, the P-8 can conduct long-range patrols over vast waters. Its missions include anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, and search and rescue. Outfitted with advanced radar and SIGINT systems, it can detect and track both large and small vessels.
Operating in international waters and airspace, the mission will focus on the Southern Caribbean, a major transit zone for cocaine, heroin, and synthetic drugs bound for the United States and Europe. Traffickers exploit remote islands, high-speed boats, semi-submersibles, and corrupt port officials to evade detection. Defense officials said naval forces will also support law enforcement missions targeting maritime terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction, and illegal seaborne migration.
In March, the U.S. military deployed destroyers near the U.S.–Mexico border to support Northern Command’s border security mission, underscoring that the Caribbean buildup is part of a broader shift toward militarizing counter-drug operations.
President Donald Trump signed a directive authorizing military action against Latin American cartels after their designation as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) in February. This marked a major shift, as the administration expanded the FTO framework, once applied only to traditional terrorist groups, to include criminal cartels long treated as law enforcement targets.
On February 19, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated eight organizations: MS-13, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, and six major Mexican cartels, the Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), Northeast, Gulf, United Cartels, and the Michoacán Family. The Sinaloa Cartel, for instance, operates across Sinaloa, Durango, and Chihuahua, with networks stretching to the U.S. border. The crackdown also extended to Venezuela, where the Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel de los Soles as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization.
Led by President Nicolas Maduro and senior regime figures, it has trafficked drugs into the U.S. for over a decade while supporting groups such as Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel. On May 2, Secretary Rubio further expanded the list by adding two Haitian gangs, Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif.
Although the terrorist designation provides justification for escalated enforcement actions, liberals and Democrats are questioning the operation on legal, constitutional, and international law grounds. The Trump administration counters that no authority outside the United States has jurisdiction over the U.S. government or the president’s executive power.
Legal experts have stated that “On the law, FTO designation, by itself, does not constitute an authorization to use force, despite some confusion to the contrary, including within the U.S. government,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department attorney-adviser (2011–2021). Should Trump pursue airstrikes, special operations raids, or a broader military campaign against cartels in Mexico, he would likely need a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) tailored specifically to those groups.
There is, however, precedent for presidents using executive authority to strike terrorist organizations abroad. The 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) empowered President George W. Bush to target the planners of the 9/11 attacks and their supporters, while a second AUMF in 2002 authorized the invasion of Iraq and has since been invoked by successive administrations to justify global operations against Islamic terror groups. At present, though, drug cartels are not considered directly linked to these groups on any significant scale.
President Trump accurately referred to the flow of illegals at the southern border as an invasion. He has rightly called narcotrafficking a threat to U.S. national security. Given that the governments of Latin America are controlled by cartels and are either unwilling or unable to stop them, the president is deploying the U.S. military. As is always the case, none of those criticizing President Trump have proposed an alternative plan to eliminate the drug cartels.
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