Warships Positioned Near Venezuela as U.S. Targets Cartel Operations

President Donald Trump is taking the fight to the cartels and he’s doing it with firepower.

In a bold escalation of his administration’s war on transnational drug trafficking, the U.S. is deploying three Aegis guided-missile destroyers to the waters off Venezuela within the next 36 hours, according to two sources briefed on the mission. The warships USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and USS Sampson are part of a broader campaign to target Latin American drug cartels that have been officially designated global terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

A separate U.S. official confirmed that roughly 4,000 sailors and Marines will be deployed across the southern Caribbean region as part of the operation, which will also include P-8 surveillance planes, an attack submarine, and other naval assets capable of launching targeted strikes if necessary.

“President Trump made it clear drug cartels are not just criminal syndicates they are foreign terrorist threats to U.S. national security,” one senior defense official said. “This is about protecting the American people at the source.”

The strategy is multi-layered:

• Surveillance and reconnaissance operations are underway to pinpoint trafficking routes and cartel infrastructure.

• Maritime interdiction efforts will block drug shipments before they ever reach U.S. shores.

• The deployed naval force will serve as a launch platform for intelligence-based precision strikes, should that option be greenlit.

This is not an idle flex of military muscle it’s the next phase in Trump’s larger push to secure the southern border and stop cartel-driven migration and violence at the root.

Earlier this year, Trump designated Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), giving the military and intelligence community expanded tools to dismantle their networks.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro predictably responded with chest-puffing nationalism, warning on Monday that his regime would “defend our seas, our skies and our lands” while blaming “a declining empire” for the operation. But so far, Venezuela’s communications ministry has offered no official statement.

Here’s why this matters now more than ever:

• Fentanyl overdose deaths in the U.S. surpassed 75,000 last year, much of it trafficked through cartel pipelines.

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized over 20,000 pounds of cocaine and meth linked to Venezuelan and Mexican gangs since January.

• The cartels are not just drug traffickers they are paramilitary organizations operating across sovereign borders, fueling violence and human trafficking on a global scale.

Under President Trump, America is finally treating these threats with the seriousness they deserve.

While the Biden administration allowed cartels to flourish and overran the southern border with chaos, Trump is now deploying military precision and unapologetic strength to defend the homeland.

The mission is clear: cut off the cartels at the source, secure the border, and protect American families.

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