President Trump, who has long advocated for US military action against the drug cartels, appears to be making good on that threat.
The President "has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations," according to a New York Times report.
At the top of that list is the "Cartel de los Soles" (Cartel of the Suns), which the US says is headed by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and for whom the US has issued a multi-million dollar reward for information leading to his capture or conviction.
Not far behind are the Mexican Cartels about whom President Trump made his views clear before his re-election during an appearance on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" when the show's host asked, "Mexico — are strikes against the cartel still on the table?"
“Absolutely,” responded Trump.
"Mexico's gonna have to straighten it out really fast, or the answer (to questions about the U.S. military taking on Mexico's cartels) is absolutely. They're killing 300,000 people a year with fentanyl coming in." -Donald Trump (July 2024)
Several months later, Trump running-mate JD Vance told supporters attending a campaign rally that - if elected Vice-President - he would encourage President Trump to deploy the U.S. military "to do battle" with the Mexican cartels:
"I think we've got hundreds of thousands of very fine Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen, who are pretty pissed off at the Mexican cartels. I think we'll send them in to do battle with the Mexican drug cartels, too." -Vice-Presidential Nominee J.D. Vance (October 22, 2024)
The military is already engaged in the fight against cartel smugglers at sea. In March of this year, US Northern Command began assigning Navy Warships to join the Coast Guard in protecting the Southern Border from Cartel Smugglers.
Last month, a helicopter launched from the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson opened fire on a cartel smuggling boat in the Pacific Ocean when its crew refused to stop to be boarded and began tossing their drug cargo overboard.
The burst of gunfire from the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter quickly disabled the vessel. The smuggling crew was arrested by a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) assigned to the USS Sampson, who also recovered 3,439 pounds of cocaine from the boat and the waters around it.
Earlier this year, the US State Department designated several cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio says opens the door to a US Military response:
"It allows us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever, to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it. We cannot continue to just treat these guys as local street gangs. They have weaponry that looks like what terrorists, in some cases armies, have. We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations." -Secretary of State Marco Rubio (August 7, 2025)
What's unclear is exactly what military action against the cartels the Trump Administration has in mind.
In 1989, through "Operation Just Cause," President George H.W. Bush sent more than 20,000 troops into Panama to arrest its ruler, General Manuel Noriega, after he was indicted in the United States on charges of drug trafficking.
Noriega surrendered within two weeks, but not before 516 Panamanians as well as 23 U.S. soldiers and 3 U.S. civilians were killed during the invasion. Noriega was flown to the U.S., where he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The Secretary of Defense during Trump's first term in office, Mark T. Esper, revealed in a book that the President asked him if the US military could “shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs.”
And, during his most recent campaign for election to a second term, Trump released a statement titled "President Donald J. Trump Declares War on Cartels," which contained a "Trump Action Plan to Destroy the Drug Cartels."
In it, President Trump promised to "order the Department of Defense to make appropriate use of special forces, cyber warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations."
Do you support US military action against the cartels?
Share your opinions in the comments to this article.
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
This is one of those best-worst-option scenarios, like Iran or North Korea. It's going to be a mess with a lot of terrorist reprisal in the USA, no matter what. But avoiding the problem won't solve it, so might as well bite the bullet.
Mr. F - I concur w you about not avoiding these problems; plus I assume there are many efforts/actions behind the scenes we are not privy to knowing, including intel they see/have and comms with the cartels/enablers (ie, gov't regimes) and that this 'directive' to use military is part of an overall plan to remove their influence from US soil -- it must be a 'whole of government' effort otherwise they will find the weak spots, as they already have. What other options do we really have, just wait for a day/time of their choosing? Allow them to grow in power/influence and numbers, and intel? I'd argue any 2nd or 3rd level blow-back such as reprisal in the homeland as you say would be fundamentally at the feet of those who allowed in over 10 million illegals, and many who are unchecked and unknown, not to mention the gotaways -- assume you've read the great (but now somewhat stale) book by T. Bennsman Overrun, and follow his site? Also, Mr. Beavers, we appreciate you keeping an eye on these topics -- it seems you don't necessarily share the views of your commenters, and yet you stay on top of this topic, thank you.