Washington — The Pentagon mentioned Friday that the U.S. is sending an plane service strike group to the waters off Latin America, an escalation that may dramatically enhance the variety of service members and ships devoted to the Trump administration’s marketing campaign to counter narcotics traffickers.
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, mentioned on X that Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth “has directed the Gerald R. Ford Provider Strike Group and embarked service air wing to the U.S. Southern Command” space of accountability. Southern Command is answerable for the Caribbean Sea, Central and South America and the encircling waters.
Parnell mentioned the “enhanced U.S. pressure presence” will “bolster U.S. capability to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and actions that compromise the security and prosperity of the USA homeland and our safety within the Western Hemisphere.”
The usGerald R. Ford is the Navy’s latest and most superior plane service, having been commissioned into service in 2017. At greater than 1,100 ft. lengthy with a displacement of 100,000 lengthy tons, the service is the biggest on the planet. It is powered by two nuclear reactors and may attain a high velocity of 34.5 mph, in keeping with the Navy.
As of early October, it was deployed within the Mediterranean Sea.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ridge Leoni/U.S. Navy by way of Getty Photographs
Information of the choice to ship the service group to Latin America comes after the U.S. launched one other strike on a vessel allegedly operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua that Hegseth mentioned was trafficking medicine within the Caribbean Sea.
The secretary mentioned on X that the strike killed all six males who had been on board, and happened in worldwide waters. He mentioned it was the primary strike to happen at evening.
“The vessel was recognized by our intelligence to be concerned in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting alongside a recognized narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” he wrote. Hegseth posted a video, marked unclassified, displaying the vessel because it was hit.
This newest strike seems to be the tenth carried out by the Trump administration towards alleged drug trafficking boats over the previous a number of weeks, which have now led to greater than 40 deaths. The primary a number of happened within the Caribbean Sea, however this week, the administration’s marketing campaign broadened into the Pacific Ocean.
