Trump Strikes on Venezuelan Drug Ships Trigger Cartel Operational Chaos

President Donald Trump’s strikes aimed at eliminating suspected narcoterrorists from Venezuela are expected to force criminal drug networks to restructure the cartel landscape to deal with the Trump administration’s “armed conflict” against them.

The White House released a memo sent to lawmakers on September 30 alerting them that the United States is now engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug traffickers after four strikes on suspected drug ships originating from Venezuela since September in the Caribbean.

These strikes will ultimately sow discord within these groups, disrupt key logistics of the cartel networks and put them on notice, experts say.

“Every trafficker who gets on one of these boats should ask themselves if this is a one-way trip and if this is their last trip. You know, think twice,” Brian Townsend, a retired supervisory special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “So I think that helps. It’s going to make finding crews more difficult because there’s this lingering doubt in their head that this could literally be a one-way ticket to my death.”

WAR ON CARTELS? WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT HAS AN IRON BUSINESS TO HIT NARCO-TERRORIST GROUPS

Venezuelan ship destroyed in US military strike. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)

The strikes come as the Trump administration takes on drug cartels and the influx of illicit drugs into the United States and after the administration in February designated drug cartel groups like Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and others as foreign terrorist organizations.

Despite the strikes, Townsend said the cartels are incredibly agile. But the added pressure from the Trump administration’s increased crackdown on drug flows offers the United States an opportunity to deter them as cartels adapt to new protocols.

“The more we force them to adapt, the more mistakes we can make, the more openings we can exploit. … It degrades their infrastructure. It frustrates them,” Townsend said.

The strikes could also intensify tensions between the cartels, which will now compete for resources, according to Townsend. Specifically, cartels will likely have difficulty recruiting pilots and captains and will compete more directly with other groups that may offer higher wages or safer routes, he said.

Additionally, brokers and buyers could turn to a rival group if they can provide a more consistent supply, Townsend said.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATOR TELLS CONGRESS HE DETERMINED WE ENGAGED IN FORMAL “ARMED CONFLICT” WITH “TERRORISM” DRUG CARTELS

The crew of a Coast Guard small boat Vigilant (WMEC 617) transfers illicit drugs seized from a Go-fast vessel to the cutter in the Caribbean Sea August 15, 2025. (Coast Guard photo)

“This continued pressure reveals weaknesses and opportunities that rival groups can exploit. Cartels operate in a brutal and competitive environment,” Townsend said. “Anything that destabilizes their illicit economic model can lead to internal and external conflicts.

“We’re not just stopping the boats and destroying the drugs meant to poison our communities. We’re forcing them to change their operations, which will only increase animosity.”

Additionally, strikes could hamper business for groups like Tren de Aragua because the stakes might be too high, according to Nathan Jones, a nonresident drug policy researcher studying in Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

“One possibility is that there is a deterrent effect if other cartels do business with Tren de Aragua or the Los Soles Cartel in the Caribbean,” Jones said. “This could be seen as too high a risk and the groups as potentially unstable partners.”

Nonetheless, Jones said these strikes are unlikely to affect the flow of fentanyl to the United States since fentanyl precursors originate in China and are then produced in laboratories in Mexico, where they are then transported north, without entering the Caribbean.

“I wouldn’t expect your medication flow to be affected because of these strikes,” Jones said. “It might, however, leave transnational criminal organizations a little scared about what the administration is going to do.”

Jones said, however, that he anticipated that drug routes would adapt and that land or air routes would become preferable to sea routes transiting the Caribbean.

Trump unleashes American military power against the cartels. IS A WIDER WAR COMING ON?

Sen. Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, pictured here, introduced a war powers resolution in September that would prevent U.S. forces from engaging in “hostilities” against certain non-state organizations. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The strikes attracted the attention of members of Congress, who questioned their legality. For example, Senators Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, and Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, introduced a war powers resolution in September that would prevent U.S. forces from engaging in “hostilities” against certain non-state organizations.

“Congress did not authorize the use of force in this manner,” Schiff told reporters Wednesday. “I think it’s clearly unconstitutional. The fact that the administration claims to have a list and has put organizations on a list does not give the administration the authority to usurp the power of Congress to declare war or refuse to declare war or refuse to authorize the use of force.”

The measure failed in the Senate on Wednesday by a margin of 48-51.

Despite this, Trump indicated the strikes would continue and told military leaders in September that “the military is now on a knife’s edge in the fight against this sinister enemy.”

“We have to warn the traffickers and the cartels. … If you try to poison our people, we will make you disappear, because that’s the only language they really understand,” Trump told military leaders in Quantico, Virginia, on September 30. “That’s why you don’t see boats in the ocean anymore. You don’t see boats around Venezuela anymore. There’s nothing.”