With Drug Boat Strikes Trump Leans Into War on Terror Tactic Against Cartels

 

Gulf of Mexico – April 5, 2025

center of this approach: precision airstrikes on so-called “drug boats” in international waters, conducted under a revived and expanded interpretation of military authority. The tactic, first tested in covert U.S. Navy operations last fall and now being publicly endorsed by Trump as part of his 2024 campaign platform, marks a sharp turn from traditional law enforcement toward a war-fighting model long reserved for terrorist organizations.

“These aren’t smugglers they’re terrorists with speedboats,” Trump declared at a rally in Tampa last week. “And we’re going to hunt them like we hunted ISIS.”

The strategy draws directly from the playbook of the Global War on Terror: using intelligence from drones and satellites to identify suspect vessels, then authorizing military assets Navy destroyers, Coast Guard cutters, and even special operations forces to intercept or, in extreme cases, destroy them. According to Pentagon documents reviewed by this reporter, at least three suspected narco-submarines and high-speed “go-fast” boats were disabled or sunk in the eastern Pacific and Gulf of Mexico between January and March 2025 under a classified directive signed during Trump’s final weeks in office and quietly maintained by the Biden administration.

“This isn’t policing it’s maritime interdiction with lethal force,” said retired Admiral Carlos Mendez, who oversaw Southern Command operations from 2019 to 2022. “Once you start sinking boats in international waters, you’re operating under the laws of armed conflict, not the U.S. Code.”

Supporters argue the cartels—now responsible for over 100,000 U.S. overdose deaths annually have evolved into paramilitary organizations with arsenals rivaling small nations. “They use encrypted comms, tunnels, submarines, and assassins,” said DEA analyst Rachel Kim. “Why should we fight them with handcuffs when they’re waging war?”

But critics warn the militarized approach risks civilian casualties, diplomatic blowback, and mission creep. In one unconfirmed incident last February, a fishing vessel off the Yucatán Peninsula was reportedly mistaken for a drug boat; though no lives were lost, Mexico’s government issued a formal protest. “You don’t declare war on an industry,” said Dr. Elena Fuentes, a security scholar at the University of Texas. “You regulate, disrupt, and treat addiction as a public health crisis not a battlefield.”

For coastal communities from Brownsville to San Diego, the stakes feel personal. “My nephew died from fentanyl,” said Maria Lopez, a teacher in Laredo. “If sinking a boat saves one life, I’m for it.” Yet others fear the strategy ignores root causes. “We’re bombing symptoms while ignoring the demand,” said Father Thomas Greene, who runs a rehab center in El Paso. “The real war isn’t out there it’s in our pharmacies and our policies.”

As Trump vows to “authorize full kinetic action” against cartels if re-elected, the line between drug enforcement and warfare continues to blur. The question isn’t just whether America can win this war but whether it should be fighting it at all.

SEO Anahtar Kelimeler: Trump drug boat strikes, cartel militarization, Gulf of Mexico, war on drugs, counter-narcotics tactics