Coast Guard vs the Cartels: Inside "Operation Pacific Viper"
West Coast smuggling routes targeted
The US Coast Guard is targeting Mexican, Central & South American Cartels through "Operation Pacific Viper," cutting off drug and human smugglers before they reach the US West Coast. Since its launch, the US Coast Guard (USCG) has seized over 13,000 pounds of cocaine and arrested 11 suspected drug smugglers across the Eastern Pacific.
On August 8th, 2025, the USCG Cutter Hamilton intercepted a drug smuggling vessel south of Mexico, seizing three cartel smugglers along with over 4,000 pounds of cartel cocaine.
On August 11th, 2025, a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) onboard the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Sampson interdicted a drug smuggling boat south of Mexico. The suspected traffickers tried to dump their cargo and flee. The LEDET fired upon the vessel’s engine from a helicopter, disabling it. Two suspected smugglers were detained along with over 1,300 pounds of cocaine.
On August 16th,2025, the USCG Cutter Stone interdicted a smuggling vessel south of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands. Service members disabled the vessel by shooting its engine out from a helicopter. The Coast Guard detained three more cartel drug smugglers and seized over 3,500 pounds of cartel cocaine.
On August 17th, 2025, USCG Cutter Stone carried out another interdiction, after shooting out the vessel’s engines from a helicopter, detaining three cartel drug smugglers, and seizing over 4,000 pounds of cartel cocaine.
On August 19th, 2025, USCG Cutter Stone interdicted another cartel drug smuggling boat, seizing nearly 3,000 pounds of cocaine. On the same day, a boat launched from the USCG Cutter Venturous seized over 750 pounds of cocaine that was thrown overboard by another crew of cartel smugglers.
How much damage do you think "Operation Pacific Viper" has inflicted on cartel cocaine smuggling operations?
Share your thoughts in the comments to this article.
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
Thank you Jack for your service. You are educating us Patriots. No surprise Jack that none of this happened under Biden. President Donald Trump has been a blessing.
I wonder how much sleep Claudia Sheinbaum gets these days. She's caught in a vice between the cartels and pressure from the Trump administration. I guess her best hope is to pretend that she is being steamrolled by Trump and not cooperating. She spouts silly rhetoric about resisting Trump, but doesn't actually put up a fight. Then again, if anything happens to her, the cartels will reveal the extent of their influence, which might invite US reprisal welcomed by Mexican politicians who live in fear of cartel violence.
I also wonder if the boogeymen we're so afraid of are paper tigers. Given how cruel and ruthless cartels are when they have the upper hand, like the rest of our enemies who wage asymmetrical warfare against us, maybe they're more scared of military conflict than we are.
I started thinking this way when I noticed that China, majorly dependent on Iranian oil, was so quiet after Trump ordered the strike on Iran. China is happy to fund Iran's proxy war against the west, but less enthusiastic to risk an open confrontation with us. They're happy to fund the drug and migrant smuggling network, but not so eager to find out if we would intervene in Taiwan.
Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world; but in a klepto-state, who can trust that the missiles are being maintained properly? Even their new high-tech battleship was a potemkin, easily sunk by the Ukrainians. China has the same problem with their military hardware, and an untested army with little loyalty to the current regime.
I guess I need to learn more about how Bukele rose to power overnight in El Salvador and how Milei did so in Argentina, despite all the corrupt influence stacked against them.