Pentagon launches Operation Southern Spear targeting Caribbean drug routes

The U.S. military began deploying Navy warships and personnel to the Caribbean in mid-August 2025 as part of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as a campaign to disrupt narco-trafficking networks supplying drugs to the United States. The operation, later named Operation Southern Spear, authorized U.S. forces to strike vessels suspected of drug trafficking in international Caribbean waters. The deployment built on a Trump administration executive order declaring drug trafficking a national security emergency.