Executive Summary

Drug traffickers are increasingly shifting shipments from the eastern Pacific to the Caribbean, and the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands have increased joint maritime anti-drug operations in the past year, becoming a successful. Canada’s Operation CARIBBE, since 2006, and the Netherlands’ West Indies Guard Ship program have allowed their navies to patrol smuggling routes for the last two decades. 

Embedding U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETs) aboard these vessels under the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF–South) framework has enabled the drug seizures to fall under U.S. jurisdiction, closing legal gaps that prevent allies from prosecuting traffickers on their own. This has strengthened multilateral enforcement and seized multi-ton shipments valued in the hundreds of millions. In August, Washington reinforced these efforts by deploying Marines, naval, and air assets to the region to counter narcotrafficking.

This report evaluates the operational effectiveness, allied coordination, and evolving role of these joint missions, particularly in light of increased U.S. military deployments against the War on Drugs. We argue that this long-standing cooperation has entered a more assertive phase at least for the U.S., setting a precedent for allied anti-crime naval partnerships elsewhere.