Trump’s strikes on Venezuelan drug ships create operational chaos for the cartel

President Donald Trump’s strikes eliminating alleged drug terrorists from Venezuela are expected to force criminal drug networks to restructure the cartel landscape as they deal with the “armed conflict” the Trump administration is running against them.

The White House issued a memo sent to lawmakers on September 30 alerting them that the United States is now engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug traffickers after four strikes against alleged drug ships from Venezuela since September in the Caribbean.

According to experts, these strikes will ultimately sow discord among these groups, disrupt key logistics services of the cartel networks and alert them.

“Every smuggler who gets on one of these boats has to wonder if this is a one-way ticket and this is his last trip,” Brian Townsend, a retired supervisory special agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “You know, think twice.” “So, I guess this helps. It’ll make finding the crew more difficult because there’s a lingering suspicion in their minds that this could literally be a one-way ticket to my death.”

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These strikes come as the Trump administration confronts drug cartels and the flow of illicit drugs into the United States, and after the administration in February designated drug cartel groups such as Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and others as foreign terrorist organizations.

Despite the strikes, Townsend said the gangs are incredibly resilient. But additional pressures from the Trump administration’s tough crackdown on the flow of drugs provide an opportunity for the United States to push back as cartels navigate new protocols.

“The more we force them to adapt, the more mistakes we can make, the more opportunities we can take,” Townsend said. “It degrades their infrastructure. It frustrates them.”

Strikes may also exacerbate tensions between cartels, which will now compete for resources, according to Townsend. Specifically, cartels are more likely to face recruitment difficulties as they seek pilots and captains, and will compete more directly with other groups who may offer greater pay or safer routes, he said.

In addition, brokers and buyers could turn to a competing pool if they can provide a more stable supply, Townsend said.

Trump administration tells Congress it has determined that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with “terrorist” drug cartels.

“This constant pressure exposes weaknesses and opportunities that rival groups can exploit,” Townsend said. “Cartels operate in a brutally competitive environment.” “Anything that destabilizes their illicit business model could lead to internal and external conflicts.

“We’re not just stopping boats and destroying drugs meant to poison our communities. We’re making them change their operations, and that will increase hostility.”

In addition, strikes could hamper the work of groups like Tren de Aragua because the risks could be so high, according to Nathan Jones, a nonresident scholar in drug policy and Mexico studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

“One possibility is that there could be a chilling effect from other cartels doing business with the Tren de Aragua or the Cartel de Los Soles in the Caribbean,” Jones said. “It may be seen as too high a risk, and the groups may be seen as unstable partners.”

However, Jones said these strikes are unlikely to impact the flow of fentanyl into the United States because fentanyl precursors originate in China and are then produced in labs in Mexico, where they are then smuggled north, without entering the Caribbean.

“I don’t expect your drug flow to be affected by these strikes,” Jones said. “However, this may make transnational criminal organizations feel a little fearful in terms of what the administration will do.”

However, Jones said he expects drug flow routes to adapt and land or air drug routes to become better than sea routes crossing the Caribbean.

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The strikes have attracted scrutiny from members of Congress, who have questioned the legality of the strikes. For example, Senators Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, introduced a war powers resolution in September that would bar U.S. forces from engaging in “hostile actions” against certain nongovernmental organizations.

“There was no authorization for the use of force by Congress in this manner,” Schiff told reporters on Wednesday. “I feel that this is patently unconstitutional. The fact that the administration claims to have a list and has put the organizations on the list does not somehow enable the administration to usurp Congress’s authority to declare war or refuse to declare war or refuse to authorize the use of force.”

The measure failed in the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 48 to 51.

However, Trump indicated that the strikes would continue and told military leaders in September that “the military is now at a knife’s edge in the fight against this evil enemy.”

“We have to alert the traffickers and the cartels… If you try to poison our people, we will wipe you out, because that’s the only language they really understand,” Trump told military commanders in Quantico, Virginia, on September 30. “That’s why you don’t see any more boats in the ocean. You don’t see any boats around Venezuela. There’s nothing.”