As the US military strengthens its footing in the Caribbean amid escalating tensions with Venezuela, there is growing evidence that troops are gearing up for potential conflict within the nation.

Donald Trump has not hidden his disapproval of the current Venezuelan leadership under dictator Nicolás Maduro, where the notorious Cartel de los Soles and Tren de Aragua gangs operate.

The president announced to Congress on Thursday that the US is currently engaged in a ‘non-international armed conflict’ against unspecified cartels responsible for killing thousands of Americans annually by smuggling drugs like fentanyl.

Under Trump’s orders, the military has already conducted at least four attacks on what it asserts were drug trafficking vessels headed for the US.

Footage showing boats moving at high speeds only to be abruptly consumed by explosive blasts have been frequently shared on the president’s social media platforms.

Trump appears determined to revive the Monroe Doctrine, a political concept asserting that the US should influence the western hemisphere, including South America and adjacent areas.

The latest strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat came on Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced.

‘Earlier this morning, on President Trump’s orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations,’ Hegseth posted on X.

‘Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no US forces were harmed in the operation. The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics – headed to America to poison our people.’ 

There’s no independent verification that those killed were narco-terrorists beyond Hegseth’s assertion. 

The secretary wrote that intelligence confirms that the individuals aboard were carrying illicit drugs and that the strikes will continue ‘until the attacks on the American people are over!’

Hegseth included video of the operation showing a boat out at sea getting obliterated by a US missile.

Trump later celebrated the strike on Truth Social. 

‘A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 to 50 thousand people was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory,’ he wrote. 

Neither the Pentagon nor the US Navy immediately responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.  

It appears these strikes in international waters may just be the beginning.

The US military is also mulling how to go about striking targets linked to drug trafficking in Venezuela directly, NBC News reported last week.

Further, the large build-up of servicemen in the region, based out of Puerto Rico, has some wondering whether troops are practicing for potential operations to seize key locations within the country.

The regional forces include numerous Navy vessels, ten advanced F-35, Harrier jets, a Navy submarine and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, which totals more than 2,200 soldiers, according to the Washington Examiner.

The regional forces have made no secret of that they are practicing land-based incursions as well. 

A recent practice operation in the US Virgin Islands had soldiers jump from helicopters into the sea and then rendezvous with other soldiers on the ground.

‘Our airmen exercised their unique skill sets to parachute into contested territory, establish airfield operations, control aircraft, respond to search and rescue scenarios, manage notional medical evacuations and conduct reconnaissance and targeting operations on a very tight timeline,’ an officer said of the practice operation, which occurred in late August. 

Trump notified Congress this week that the US is now engaged in a ‘non-international armed conflict’ against drug cartels that he deemed ‘terrorist organizations’ through an executive order earlier this year.

In a confidential memo circulated among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Trump shared his reasoning that the terrorists are ‘unlawful combatants’ whose actions ‘constitute an armed attack against the United States.’

The memo serves to provide the military with an iron-clad legal framework to carry out operations against drug traffickers headed to the US.

‘The cartels involved have grown more armed, well-organized, and violent,’ the memo states. ‘They have the financial means, sophistication, and paramilitary capabilities needed to operate with impunity.’