US Military Conducts First Targeted Lethal Strike on Drug Smuggling Vessel in Caribbean Sea

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The United States “conducted a lethal strike” against an alleged “drug vessel” coming from Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday. 11 smugglers were reportedly killed in the strike, all alleged to be Tren de Aragua (TdA) members.

“As @potus just announced moments ago, today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Carribean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization,” Rubio said in a post on X after President Donald Trump referenced the incident in Oval Office remarks.

The use of military force against Latin American drug cartels represents a significant escalation by the Trump administration and could have serious implications for the region.

The US has amassed a large number of military assets around the Caribbean and Latin America, drawing the ire of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

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Trump Directs Military Action Against Cartels Following $50 Million Reward for Venezuela’s Maduro

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

According to the New York Times, President Trump has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations, according to people familiar with the matter.

The decision to bring the American military into the fight is the most aggressive step so far in the administration’s escalating campaign against the cartels. It signals Trump’s continued willingness to use military forces to carry out what has primarily been considered a law enforcement responsibility to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.

The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels.

U.S. military officials have started drawing up options for how the military could go after the groups, the people familiar with the conversations said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.

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Venezuela’s Cartel del Soles Sanctioned as Terrorist Group Supporting Sinaloa Cartel & Tren de Aragua

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Cartel de los Soles as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The US stated that Cartel de los Soles is a Venezuela-based criminal group headed by Nicolas Maduro Moros and other high-ranking Venezuelan individuals in the Maduro regime that provides material support to foreign terrorist organizations threatening the peace and security of the United States, namely Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Today’s action further exposes the illegitimate Maduro regime’s facilitation of narco-terrorism through terrorist groups like Cartel de los Soles,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The Treasury Department will continue to execute on President Trump’s pledge to put America First by cracking down on violent organizations including Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and their facilitators, like Cartel de los Soles.”

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RICO Charges Filed Against Dozens of Tren de Aragua and Anti-Tren Gang Members

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Two superseding indictments were unsealed charging 27 individuals currently or formerly associated with the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, robbery, and firearms offenses. The first superseding indictment (the “TdA Indictment”) charges six alleged members of TdA. 

The second superseding indictment (the “Anti-Tren Indictment”) charges 19 alleged members of “Anti-Tren,” a splinter faction comprised of former TdA members, along with two additional associates of Anti-Tren. 

Of the 27 defendants, 21 are in federal custody, including 16 who were already in federal criminal, immigration, or state custody and five who were arrested last night and today in operations in New York and other jurisdictions.

“As alleged, Tren de Aragua is not just a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that has destroyed American families with brutal violence, engaged in human trafficking, and spread deadly drugs through our communities,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Today’s indictments and arrests span three states and will devastate TdA’s infrastructure as we work to completely dismantle and purge this organization from our country.”

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Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan Gang Operating Across South America, Into Mexico and the US

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat 

In the past few years, media outlets have reported violent incidents connected to the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) taking place in New York, Chicago, Miami and in Texas. The latest media frenzy involves at least two apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado that have been allegedly taken over by members of the gang after a surveillance video went viral showing armed men patrolling and entering an apartment.

From its origins as a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, Tren de Aragua has quickly expanded throughout the Western Hemisphere in recent years with 5,000 members from South America stretching to the United States. 

With a particular focus on human smuggling and other extortion type acts targeting desperate migrants, the organization has developed additional revenue sources through a range of criminal activities, such as illegal mining, kidnapping, human trafficking, cybercrime, theft, extortion, and drug smuggling.

While they have not fully entered the level of other cartels in the drug world, they have taken advantage of Venezuela's corruption, pr and violence to smuggle migrants first into Colombia and more recently north to Mexico and the United States.

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