Pete Hegseth Announces New Caribbean Counter-Narcotics Task Force
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the Department of War (DOW) is establishing a new joint counternarcotics task force in the Caribbean Sea.
Hegseth said the task force’s goal would be “to crush the cartels, stop the poison and keep America safe.” The message is clear: if you smuggle drugs to our shores, we will stop you in your tracks.”
The task force is launching under the leadership of President Donald Trump, he said, in the SOUTHCOM area, which covers the Caribbean and Latin America.
US STRIKES ANOTHER DRUG TRAFFICKING BOAT NEAR VENEZUELA, KILLING 4
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the War Department is establishing a new joint counternarcotics task force in the Caribbean Sea. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
U.S. Southern Command said in a statement that the task force was launching Friday under the leadership of the II Marine Expeditionary Force “to synchronize and augment counternarcotics efforts throughout the Western Hemisphere.”
“Transnational criminal organizations threaten the security, prosperity, and health of our hemisphere,” Admiral Alvin Holsey, commander of SOUTHCOM, said in a statement. “By forming a JTF around II MEF Headquarters, we are strengthening our ability to detect, disrupt and dismantle illicit trafficking networks faster and deeper – in collaboration with our U.S. and partner nation counterparts.”
Trump orders ‘lethal kinetic strike’ against drug smuggling boat in international waters, three dead
This comes as the administration has launched strikes against boats in the Caribbean that it says are linked to drug trafficking networks.
The administration has carried out a series of deadly attacks on four small boats suspected of transporting drugs in recent months.
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he had ordered a deadly strike against a vessel linked to a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility on September 19. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
He said 21 people were killed in the strikes.
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The attacks alarmed Democratic lawmakers because the administration did not detail what evidence it had against the targeted boats or their passengers.
