When U.S. forces destroyed a Tren de Aragua drug runner’s fast boat with a missile on Tuesday, it opened a new chapter in the drug war and in the defense of the Western Hemisphere. Tren de Aragua is a designated terrorist organization and invasion force. In tactical terms, the strike was no different from hitting ISIS or Houthi targets in the Middle East.

“If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl or whatever, headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a speech in Mexico City.

“I’ve been saying for many years that a law enforcement solution is not good enough to address these global terrorists operating in the Western Hemisphere,” former acting DEA chief Derek Maltz told USA Today.

TRUMP’S STRIKE ON CARTEL VESSEL OFF VENEZUELA SENDS WARNING TO MADURO: NO SANCTUARY

This is truly America First. President Donald Trump is the first American leader to construct a policy framework for direct military operations against cartels. His new approach also gives Americans greater transparency into how he plans to carry it out. Part of the shock factor was that Americans got a rare chance to see U.S. military forces in action close to home.

Trump wants it out in the open. The video of Tuesday’s strike was labeled UNCLASSIFIED in bright green, meaning officials had stripped out the range and location data normally seen around the frame. 

The strike was clearly calculated, likely backed by communications intercepts and maritime surveillance. The weapon may have been a Hellfire from a helicopter or another anti-ship missile. The footage was likely captured by a drone. Regardless of the platform, the point was unmistakable: the U.S. won’t tolerate cartel activity.

TRUMP TOUTS US STRIKE AS MADURO SLAMS MILITARY ‘THREAT’ OFF VENEZUELA

The strike was a direct message to Tren de Aragua’s Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as “Niño Guerrero.” He has morphed TdA from a Venezuelan prison gang into “an organization with growing influence throughout the Western Hemisphere,” according to the Treasury Department.

TdA is more than a cartel. Yes, this is the same Tren de Aragua whose members took over the Aspen Grove apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, last year.

Its activities include drug trafficking, human smuggling, extortion, sexual exploitation, money laundering and more. The group also fueled mass migration into the United States during President Joe Biden’s open-border era.

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In policy terms, the Trump administration has taken two major steps. First, Rubio designated TdA and other cartels as foreign terrorist organizations on Feb. 20, 2025. Then on March 15, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to declare TdA a force “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.”

Here’s the language: “I find and declare that TdA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela. I make these findings using the full extent of my authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign affairs under the Constitution,” Trump proclaimed March 15.

So, there’s your legal basis. It’s like a Tom Clancy thriller, but this time it’s all out in the open—enabling a much wider range of military options.

At first, the emerging policy went almost unnoticed, overshadowed by Houthi attacks and B-2 strikes on Iran. But the U.S. military was preparing. A scheduled deployment of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit on Aug. 14 arrayed the USS Iwo Jima amphibious ready group with its MV-22s, F-35B fighters, helicopters, four destroyers and other ships in strike position. Maduro in Venezuela panicked. Russia accused the U.S. of applying “blatant pressure” on Venezuela.

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Rubio has hinted at more to come. “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now,” Rubio said in Mexico City. It’s a signal the U.S. will defend its interests in the Western Hemisphere. The Navy has plenty of anti-ship missiles to sink every fast boat cartels can launch.

President James Monroe would be proud.

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