President Donald Trump has ordered his national security and defense teams to expand classified briefings for Congress on his administration’s anti-narcotics operations in the Caribbean and Pacific, Axios reported Monday.
The move comes as lawmakers in both parties demand more transparency after a wave of deadly maritime interdictions and increased U.S. military activity near Venezuela.
Axios reports U.S. forces have sunk at least 15 vessels and killed more than 60 suspected smugglers since the spring.
Trump reportedly told aides, “I keep getting calls about this from congressmen,” and directed staff to “make sure everyone on the Hill knows what we’re doing.”
The president has made the crackdown a central part of his second-term security agenda. He says cartels and rogue regimes have “turned the Caribbean into a floating highway of poison.”
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels have been patrolling closer to Venezuelan waters, where intelligence officials say traffickers operate with help from Nicolas Maduro’s security forces.
In recent weeks, U.S. and allied aircraft and ships have destroyed fast boats and fishing craft suspected of moving cocaine or fentanyl ingredients north.
Pentagon officials say the operations are meant to “disrupt and dismantle” criminal networks, though they warn cartels are increasingly armed and confrontational.
Caribbean governments are urging caution. Leaders in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic have warned Washington not to take actions that could “destabilize fragile maritime economies.”
Multiple media outlets report the White House has also discussed limited land-based strikes on cartel infrastructure inside Venezuela.
Such action would mark a major escalation and risk a direct clash with Maduro’s forces.
Trump has privately told aides he will “not tolerate sanctuary zones” for traffickers anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.
“America is not going to sit back while these killers use our backyard as a launchpad,” a senior administration official told Axios. “This president means business.”
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