Trump administration planning U.S. troop mission against cartels in Mexico

The Trump administration is developing plans for a potential mission to send U.S. troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels, according to NBC News.

The outlet, citing current and former U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter, reported that the operation would involve limited ground actions inside Mexico, with forces from the Joint Special Operations Command taking part. Officers from the CIA are also expected to be involved.

Two U.S. officials told NBC News that early-stage training for the mission has already begun, though a deployment is not imminent and final approval has not yet been given.

The report comes as the U.S. military continues airstrikes against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Since early September, Washington has confirmed at least 15 operations targeting 16 vessels it says were operated by designated narcoterrorist organizations.

At least 64 people have been killed in those strikes, which U.S. officials say targeted suspected members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Colombia’s National Liberation Army, as well as vessels potentially operating off the coasts of Colombia and Mexico in the Pacific.

The possibility of operations inside Mexico follows months of escalating rhetoric from President Donald Trump, who in April publicly warned that his administration was “running out of patience” with what he described as Mexico’s “failure to stop the killers and smugglers at our border.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly condemned any suggestion of U.S. military intervention, calling it a violation of sovereignty. “We’ve always said it: we do not agree with any intervention or interference. We coordinate, we do not subordinate,” Sheinbaum said earlier this year.

In February, the U.S. designated six Mexican cartels—including the Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation, and Gulf cartels—as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). The move, enacted through an executive order on Trump’s first days in office, granted U.S. forces expanded authority to pursue cartel leaders abroad.

If approved, the proposed cross-border mission would be conducted covertly and kept secret, according to officials cited by NBC News, with no public acknowledgment of its operations or results.