USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group Heads to Caribbean to Confront Narco-Terror Networks
War Secretary Pete Hegseth deploys U.S. Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier strike group to achieve Trump’s strategic vision for drug traffickers: Death.
The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, the U.S. Navy’s most advanced advanced aircraft carrier strike group that is currently stationed in Europe, has been ordered to deploy from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean as part of an expanding U.S. military campaign targeting narco-terror networks.
The order also signals a more robust response to Venezuela’s involvement in the illegal drug trade.
President Donald Trump is considering plans to target cocaine facilities and drug trafficking routes inside Venezuela, though he has not yet made a decision on whether to move forward with them, three US officials told CNN.
Outward signs on Friday pointed toward a major potential military escalation, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier strike group currently stationed in Europe to the Caribbean region amid a massive buildup of US forces there. Trump has also authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
The president has not ruled out taking a diplomatic approach with Venezuela to stem the flow of drugs into the US, two officials said, even after the administration cut off active talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in recent weeks. Venezuela is not known to be a major source of cocaine, but the Trump administration has been aggressively trying to link Maduro to the drug trade.
“There are plans on the table that the president is considering” regarding operations on targets inside Venezuelan, one administration official told CNN, adding that “he hasn’t ruled out diplomacy.
STATEMENT:
In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland, the Secretary of War has directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing to the U.S.…
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) October 24, 2025
The task force, which includes 6000 troops, will join two destroyers that are currently in the region.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the Navy’s largest aircraft carrier. It was one of two carrier strike groups rushed to the Middle East in October 2023 as part of a show of force and spent three months deployed there. The Navy amassed a large force at sea near Yemen for a year and a half, deploying multiple carrier strike groups — often with two deployed there at the same time — while fighting against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and surrounding waters.
The Ford strike group is currently in the Mediterranean Sea. It will join a large contingent of ships, including three destroyers and the three-ship Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group on which the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit is embarked.
The current force already includes more than 6,000 troops. Additionally, the U.S. has flown several U.S. Air Force B-52s and B-1 bombers near Venezuela this month. Marine Corps F-35 fighter jets and several military drones have been deployed to Puerto Rico and SOUTHCOM has said it is organizing its forces deployed for counter-narcotics operations into a joint task force overseen by II Marine Expeditionary Force.
The U.S. Department of Defense has announced that the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and her Carrier Strike Group, consisting of the Arleigh Burke-Class Guided-Missile Destroyers; USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81), and USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), have been… pic.twitter.com/qaXs5l8JVb
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 24, 2025
During a recent cabinet roundtable at the White House, President Donald Trump laid out his strategic vision for the drug traffickers.
“But we’ve been capturing these boats for years, and they get back into the system, they do it again and again and again, and they don’t fear that, they have no fear,” he told reporters.
Asked whether Trump would go to Congress to ask for a declaration of war to authorize the ongoing strikes against boats, the president declined to do so.
“Well, I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. “I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.”
“We’re going to kill them,” Trump added. “They’re going to be, like, dead.”
POTUS: "I don't think we're going to necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We're going to kill them. You know? They're going to be, like dead." pic.twitter.com/47f0bJBonu
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 23, 2025
This strike force should help him achieve this goal.
The strike group is expected to reach the Caribbean within 7–10 days, depending on speed and operational stops along the transatlantic route. So, the end of next week should be….interesting.
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Comments
Asymmetric warfare?
What? You mean we have to defend against the narco terrorist animals on equal terms? A good plan to lose any war or military engagement. .
This is overkill unless we’re actually going to go to war. The light carrier in an amphibious group has pretty much everything needed to interdict drug traffic and one is already there.
Trump understands how to send a message.
Far less than would be needed to prosecute a ‘war’. Let’s not forget the potential to add Colombia into the equation. Nor the message such a redeployment of forces sends. First that the USA is still the regional hegemonic power. Second we are refocusing on National Security threats within our own neighborhood. Third we have sufficient forces to protect the homeland and still project power elsewhere in the world. This entire saga with Venezuelan narcoterrorist/govt is more/less a brush back pitch for others in our hemisphere to remind them we can still do it when we choose.
Reasonable comments. I don’t necessarily disagree. I’m uneasy though moving a carrier to Latin America just to show the flag. This is especially true with a belligerent China building big deck carriers so they can project power elsewhere.
Once upon a time there were Barbary Pirates. Not much different. These boats are not for fishing. And if they carry enough drugs to kill 25,000 per pop, then let the pirates risk their fate.
No one ever demanded that a president declare war on Mexico for using tunnels to smuggle drugs into the US.
Stopping this smuggling business also blunts Chinese/Russian efforts to undermine American culture.
I love the quote.
“They’re going to be like dead”
What happened to “Just Say No?”
To paraphrase… “They’re gonna need bigger boats.”
Up till now Trump has avoided the use of military force that was so common with past presidents.
While the deployment of the Ford might just be a show of force, you certainly don’t need a carrier strike force to blow up a speedboat.
You only need a carrier strike force to blow up big things.
Buckle up, folks. We’re about to kill a bunch of narco-terrorists.
I think some cocaine factories/drug labs will be taken out.
Invade mexico and central America and get it over with. The border is easier to control at the Panama Canal.
The Ford strike group is a “big stick” being shaken in Maduro’s face. Same for the Colombian President. There is someone who wants no part of this party. That’s Daniel Ortega. He is being very quiet. I’ll bet there are elements of SEAL teams and Force Recon Marines on the ground preparing the battlefield already. Because the Chinese supply the precursor chemicals for fentanyl it’s also a warning to Xi.
That’s overkill. They are doing that for other reasons. Training exercise maybe?
You want overkill, massive overkill. If you send a couple patrol boats and coast guard cutters Maduro thinks I can take those and that is how a war starts. You send a carrier group and he shits his pants and negotiates.
But have they read To Kill A Mockingbird?!??!!