Hegseth Emphasizes Anti-Narco-Terrorism Mission During Caribbean Trip

The poisoning of the American people by narco-terrorists running illegal drugs through international waters will be tolerated no longer.

That was the key message underscored by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth yesterday during a trip spent interacting with troops in the Caribbean region.

"What we have declared - and we are [currently] declaring - is that, in international waters, we are not going to tolerate narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people," Hegseth told a gathering of Air National Guardsmen at Muniz Air National Guard Base, just outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The secretary, who was joined on the trip by Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, went on to say that the War Department knows who the traffickers are, what illegal substances they are trafficking, the routes they take, and who their leaders are - including Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela.

The visit came amid the deployment of various U.S. Navy vessels to the region, and just under one week since U.S. Southern Command forces conducted a kinetic strike in the Caribbean Sea against positively identified members of the Tren de Aragua narco-terrorism organization, resulting in 11 terrorists killed.

"There are 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the Caribbean [Sea] right now who found out, at the hands of American power, that you will not be poisoning the American people anymore," Hegseth told a large crowd of sailors during an afloat visit to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.

During both the Air National Guard and Navy troop visits, Hegseth emphasized the importance of the service members' contribution to the mission of protecting the homeland.

"What you're doing here is critically important to American citizens, to American families [and] to communities that have been ravaged by violence … ravaged by drugs, and ravaged by violent gangs and criminality [due to] a porous Southwest border and drugs pouring into our country," Hegseth told the service members in Puerto Rico.

"You, right now - here in Puerto Rico and around the Caribbean - are on the front lines for the American people," he added, eliciting applause from the crowd.

President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order, Jan. 20, designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, thus authorizing the military to engage any perceived threats from such entities.

Just over 82,000 Americans suffered drug-related deaths in 2024, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.