War Department launches new counter-narcotics task force under Trump directive to crush cartels

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday announced that the Department of War (DOW) is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the Caribbean Sea. 

Hegseth said the task force’s aim would be to ‘crush the cartels, stop the poison, and keep America safe. The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.’

The task force is launching at the direction of President Donald Trump, he said, in the SOUTHCOM area, which covers the Caribbean and Latin America. 

The U.S. Southern Command said in a release that the task force was being launched under the II Marine Expeditionary Force on Friday ‘to synchronize and augment counter-narcotics efforts across the Western Hemisphere.’

‘Transnational criminal organizations threaten the security, prosperity, and health of our hemisphere,’ Admiral Alvin Holsey, the commander of SOUTHCOM, said in a statement. ‘By forming a JTF around II MEF headquarters, we enhance our ability to detect, disrupt, and dismantle illicit trafficking networks faster and at greater depth – together with our U.S. and partner-nation counterparts.’

This comes as the administration has begun strikes against boats in the Caribbean it says are linked to drug trafficking networks.

The administration has conducted a series of fatal strikes against four small boats believed to be carrying drugs over the last few months.

It said 21 people were killed in the strikes.  

The attacks have alarmed Democratic lawmakers as the administration hasn’t detailed what evidence it had against the targeted boats or their passengers.