U.S. Marines with Battalion Landing Team 3/6, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit load onto a U.S. Navy landing craft aboard Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea on March 7, 2026. (Sharon Errisuriz/U.S. Marine Corps)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military continues to maintain a presence in the Caribbean Sea to strike alleged drug traffickers with five warships and thousands of troops.
That does not include the Navy’s newest and world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, which left the region in mid-February and is now operating in the Middle East. The U.S. and Israel launched extensive strikes against Iran on Feb. 28 following months of stalled negotiations over the country’s nuclear program.
The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group is operating in the Caribbean, a Navy official confirmed Thursday. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Amphibious Ready Group includes the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima and amphibious transport dock ships USS Fort Lauderdale and USS San Antonio.
The guided-missile cruisers USS Gettysburg and USS Lake Erie also are patrolling the region as part of Operation Southern Spear, the official said.
The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit also is part of the group, which includes more than 4,500 Marines and sailors, according to the Navy.
As of late 2025 and early 2026, there were as many as 11 warships and as many as 10,000 troops.
Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump designated several drug cartels as terrorist organizations, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua. His administration has asserted that the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with cartels and will treat their members as “unlawful combatants.” The administration, however, has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
The death toll from the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged traffickers has risen to at least 157 people since the strikes began in early September in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
In October, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford, along with accompanying ships USS Mahan, USS Bainbridge and USS Winston S. Churchill, to the Caribbean. At the time, nearly 20% of the Navy’s deployed warships were concentrated in the region.
The destroyers USS Gravely and USS Stockdale were also previously patrolling the region. The official would not speak about their locations.
The U.S. resumed strikes in late January after largely backing off in the region following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
Trump said at a regional summit in Doral, Fla., on Saturday that the U.S. and Latin American countries are collaborating to combat cartels and encouraged the use of military force.
“The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries,” the president said during the “Shield of the Americas” summit. “We have to use our military. You have to use your military.”
The summit came a day after U.S. Southern Command said it supported Ecuadorian forces in operations against “Designated Terrorist Organizations” within the country.
