The Trump administration has largely pointed to the lethality of fentanyl as a justification for the U.S. military strikes on purported drug smuggling vessels linked to Venezuela, but the synthetic drug largely comes into the United States from Mexico.
U.S. servicemembers have conducted at least 16 lethal strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific, killing at least 60 people, over the last two months. The administration has pointed the finger at Venezuela, but has not provided evidence that there were drugs on board the targeted vessels or publicly identified those killed.
UN DEMANDS INVESTIGATION INTO CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP STRIKES ON ALLEGED DRUG CARTEL BOATS
“You can see it, the boats get hit, and you see that fentanyl all over the ocean,” Trump said at an Oct. 15 news conference, the day after the fifth strike. “It’s, like, floating in bags. It’s all over the place.”
A couple of days later, after another strike, he said, “U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”
Various U.S. government reports state that cocaine is mainly the drug that comes from Venezuela into the U.S. — even though it’s largely produced in Colombia — while fentanyl is largely made in Mexico by drug cartels, using Chinese precursor chemicals, and is then smuggled into the U.S., largely by land.
Cocaine cowboys
The Trump administration has publicized 16 strikes in the western hemisphere since this operation began in September. It’s a significant change from the U.S.’s long-term policy stance that drug interdiction is a law enforcement issue, not a military one, where the Coast Guard would interdict the ships and arrest those aboard if drugs were found. They would then be afforded due process, which is no longer possible if the military conducts fatal strikes instead.
The operations are considered a possible precursor for a broader attempt to collapse Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government, whom the administration believes is an illegitimate leader. President Donald Trump has blamed Maduro for the tens of thousands of American overdoses resulting from illegal narcotics every year.
“Nicolas Maduro is an adversary of the United States there. He is in charge of largely a criminal state with a very repressive system, who lost an election last year and refused to acknowledge that,” Rubi Bledsoe, a research associate with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the Washington Examiner. “So we have placed sanctions on the Maduro regime. We’ve tried to engage in negotiations with the Maduro regime, and there has been no process, no progress with a transition to an elected leader.”
The legality of these strikes has come under bipartisan scrutiny.
Both Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have said each strike saves 25,000 Americans, but it’s a statement that’s impossible to fact-check because it’s unclear exactly which drugs and how much of them were on board, if any at all.
Cocaine is largely the drug that goes from Venezuela to the U.S., even though it’s primarily manufactured in remote Colombian jungle labs. A Drug Enforcement Administration fact sheet from 2024 said Colombia produces about 90% of the cocaine powder that reaches the U.S.
The State Department’s 2025 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report identified the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, located approximately 35 to 50 miles north of the Venezuelan coast, “as northbound transshipment points for cocaine originating from Colombia and Venezuela.”
The report noted that increased cooperation among the U.S. and its allies in the Caribbean led the multinational Eastern Caribbean counter-drug unit to intercept a vessel in March 2024 heading from Venezuela that was carrying more than 3,300 pounds of cocaine worth approximately $12.3 million.
Mexican cartels are the source of fentanyl
Fentanyl is roughly “a hundred times more potent than morphine,” and as little as 2 milligrams of it could be enough to trigger a fatal overdose, according to a Government Accountability Office report from September.
The synthetic drug, which largely comes from Mexico, accounted for 60% of all overdose deaths in the United States last year, according to the report. Fentanyl causes more fatal overdoses than any other drug.
Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations, especially the Sinaloa and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), are the primary suppliers of illegal drugs, including fentanyl, for the U.S. market, according to the DEA’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment.
The Sinaloa Cartel “controls and operates extensive, multi-faceted, transnational networks to facilitate the procurement and shipment of precursor chemicals from China and India to synthesize deadly synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, in Mexico-based clandestine laboratories. The cartel uses maritime ports, primarily along the Pacific Coast, to smuggle and import precursor chemicals into [Sinaloa]-controlled laboratories,” the assessment states.
The State Department’s 2025 INCSR said, “The United States determined that Mexico was again the most significant source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues significantly affecting the United States in 2024,” and “companies in the [People’s Republic of China] remain the largest source of precursor chemicals and equipment used to manufacture illicit fentanyl in Mexico.”
Trump announced last week, following his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, that fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods would be lowered to 10% from 20% because of Beijing’s “very strong action” in cracking down on the precursors.
The president is also considering whether to take more aggressive actions against the Mexican-based cartels involved in the production and smuggling of fentanyl into the country. It could mean U.S. troops carrying out drone strikes targeting their facilities, which could require a physical U.S. presence there, according to NBC News.
Why target Venezuela?
Under the president’s leadership, the U.S. military has formed its largest buildup of forces in the Caribbean in decades, which experts agree is much larger than needed to carry out these lethal strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels.
Trump has publicly confirmed he approved the CIA to conduct covert operations on Venezuelan soil, but has, for now, said he has not approved strikes on Venezuelan soil, which would be seen as a major escalation. The administration is trying to increase pressure on Maduro, though administration officials have not publicly said that regime change is the primary objective of the mission.
The Department of Justice doubled the bounty for information related to the arrest and apprehension of Maduro from $25 million to $50 million. One of the hopes is that a member of his close circle will feel the pressure campaign and decide to betray him.
Unlike with Venezuela, the Trump administration has worked with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on stopping drug smuggling. Sheinbaum has let the CIA expand surveillance flights, deployed 10,000 troops to the U.S. border, and extradited 55 senior cartel members to the U.S.
“The U.S. government has long complained about Maduro in Venezuela. There’s not much sympathy there. Its opposition has been bipartisan. So no, it’s a big deal, but it’s not that big,” Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with CSIS, told the Washington Examiner, adding that strikes in Mexico would be “a much bigger deal.”
In April, amid reports of possible direct military action against the cartels in Mexico, Sheinbaum said, “We reject any form of intervention or interference. That’s been very clear, Mexico coordinates and collaborates, but does not subordinate itself.”
Trump said last month that he has “great respect” for Sheinbaum but added, “Mexico is run by the cartels.”
