5 Detained With an Estimated $170 Million Drug Haul in Caribbean Interdiction

Five people have been detained in a maritime drug bust involving a U.S. task force that seized cocaine with an estimated value of more than $170 million.In the counter-drug operation in the Caribbean, the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATFS) facilitated the detection, monitoring, and interdiction of a go-fast vessel engaged in illicit trafficking activities, the task force said in an Oct. 30 post on X.In total, around 8,131 pounds of cocaine were seized. The operation was carried out together with the Colombian navy and Colombian air force.JIATFS supports U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)-led operations aimed at identifying, disrupting, and dismantling narco-terrorist activities in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The task force has 20 international and 13 domestic partners.The Caribbean corridor is a strategic maritime and air transshipment zone for drug trafficking operations, the Office of National Drug Control Policy said in a May report.Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) use various types of vessels to transport narcotics, the report said, adding that this poses a serious risk to U.S. national security as well as regional stability.The Caribbean’s “complex geography, comprising thousands of islands and vast maritime expanses, provides ample cover for TCOs to conceal their operations. U.S. territories, particularly Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), are prime targets for traffickers,” the report said.To tackle drug trafficking, including through the Caribbean, the United States and other nations in the Americas have formed a coalition. On Oct. 27, members from the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition met in the Dominican Republic to push forward a plan to dismantle narco-terrorist networks and transnational cartels, according to an Oct. 29 statement from the Department of War.The coalition, comprising multiple nations from the Western Hemisphere, was established by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and has committed to using hard power to deal with cartels and transnational gangs in the region.During the meeting, Eric Geressy, the war secretary’s senior adviser for strategy, said that a U.S. military operation—Operation Southern Spear—has already weakened narco-terrorist maritime corridors in the eastern and western Caribbean.“Make no mistake about the nature of our enemy. Transnational cartels are violent extremist organizations. They operate as the al-Qaida and ISIS of the Western Hemisphere,” Geressy said, adding that narco-terrorists were now adopting new methods to counter law enforcement.“Having lost parity on the physical battlefield, these cartels have opened an asymmetric line of effort—lawfare. In military doctrine, lawfare is not a legitimate legal discourse. It is the calculated weaponization of legal systems to achieve kinetic and operational effects.”In an earlier drug interdiction, French forces were informed by the Colombian navy about a go-fast vessel in the Caribbean, which, upon capture, led to the seizure of roughly 917 pounds of cocaine, JIATFS said in an Oct. 16 post on X.Countering Drug ActivitiesMeanwhile, the United States is working with Mexico to counter the influx of drugs into America, including maritime trafficking, according to an Oct. 29 statement from the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico.“Working in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy, Mexican authorities have seized approximately 90 metric tons of cocaine at sea, and maritime drug trafficking into the United States has declined by more than 95 percent,” the embassy said.U.S. forces are also targeting floating refueling stations used by drug trafficking groups to facilitate maritime transportation of narcotics.In September, SOUTHCOM said that an interdiction had sunk one such station in the Eastern Pacific that was supporting trafficking activities linked to the Los Choneros group, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization and a specially designated global terrorist last year.In August, another station associated with the group was struck. At the time, SOUTHCOM said that the interception had cut off a “critical node” from the logistics chain managed by narcotics traffickers.