The U.S. government has deployed another warship to waters near Mexico as part of President Donald Trump’s call to secure its southern border.
The USS Spruance is the second Navy destroyer that served in the Red Sea to be ordered to support the U.S. Northern Command’s mission.
Spruance departed U.S. Naval Base San Diego on Saturday, just days after the USS Gravely deployed to the Gulf of Mexico as part of the U.S. military’s response to Trump’s executive order declaring a national emergency at the border.
Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, said the deployment will focus on combating maritime-related terrorism, weapons proliferation, transnational crime, piracy, environmental destruction and illegal seaborne immigration.
“With Spruance off the West Coast and USS Gravely in the Gulf of America, our maritime presence contributes to the all-domain, coordinated DOD response to the Presidential Executive Order and demonstrates our resolve to achieve operational control of the border,” he said.
Spruance will patrol in U.S. and international waters near the Mexico-U.S. border from its homeport of Naval Station San Diego. Just like Gravely which is based at Mayport, Florida, Spruance will also include a U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment (LEDET) to assist with maritime interdiction missions.
The deployment of two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers represents “an unprecedented concentration of naval assets for border security operations,” Newsweek reported.
The Arleigh Burke-class are U.S. warships known as multi-mission surface combatants, capable of engaging targets on, above and below the surface. They can operate independently or as part of carrier strike groups, surface action groups, amphibious ready groups and replenishment groups.
Spruance returned to its homeport just before Christmas after serving five months with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, during which time it operated in the Red Sea.
Gravely also operated in the Red Sea last year. Both warships were deployed to counter attacks by Houthi rebels based in Yemen on both commercial shipping and U.S. warships operating in the region.
The maritime-based strategy is in response to the expectation that criminal organizations adapt to heightened border security measures on land. Detecting and interdicting illicit drug traffickers on the high seas involves significant inter-agency and international coordination, the U.S. Coast Guard says.
The idea is to make sure that maritime routes are not seen as more attractive alternatives for smugglers who are increasingly utilizing sophisticated vessels, including remote-operated submersibles, to smuggle drugs into the U.S.
Previous joint operations involving the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard have yielded significant results, Newsweek reported. Last year, the collaboration efforts prevented nearly 15 tons of cocaine from entering the U.S.
With reports from Newsweek, Infobae, Latin Times, United States Coast Guard News and USNI News
In the meantime, druggies in the USA are getting their fix from other countries. Drugs will never be eliminated as long as there’s beneficiaries of all income levels wanting it. It’s just a dog and pony show so they have a reason to invade ANOTHER country. I hope the Mexican government can see through all of this and has a plan of attack if they need to and not wait for the last minute.
Attack what the US, they won’t stand a chance in that regard. But if they attack the cartels it would hurt them, since the government is corrupt. Just an opinion.
They will take over Disneyland .
They’ll be spending all their time looking towards Mexico while China continues to send drugs through the seaports as they have been for years.
What a waste of resources because people are so fixated on Mexico. It’s the cargo containers. Duh.
typical, isnt it ? they always need a WAR on SOMETHING>…….. why is nobody talking about personal responsibility of the drug consumers?
The article says the navel ship is patroling in International waters along the México coast. Which means México has not given permission for the
U Navy to be in Mêxico. I have not done the math on capturing 15 tons of drugs. However, I would guess running two navel vessels in International waters for extended period of time is not cost effective when comparing it to helping people overcome an addiction.
Reagan initiated the war on drugs on or around 1980. The military industrial complex was not really busy enough to gobble up and utilize the tax dollars needed to feed the government machine.. since then I believe we have spent about $4 trillion fighting the one on drugs.. Drugs are just as available and actually cheaper than they were in 1980 adjusted for inflation. In the 80s and 90s all that cocaine was coming through Florida. It involved only two Colombian cartels, which had an iron grip on the whole process, and there was no collateral damage. Once they shut down Florida, Mexico became the conduit, and everything began to unravel. 50,000 people have died needlessly, and they have not slowed down drugs at all. As for the United States having any ability to fight the cartels, that is more hopeless than the war in Vietnam. The cartels hide in plain sight. In Mazatlan they are standing next to you in the grocery line, they are my Dentist neighbors, they are respected businessman, driving their black Mercedes next to you at the traffic lights. in many poor Pueblos they blend in like a palm tree in a jungle. Throw in the tariffs, we can all start preparing for a serious worldwide recession. And if you want true news, go to an INDEPENDENT UNIVERSITY’s website and look at their data regarding economics. Criminals statistics. Or climate information. Or international political dynamics. Thank God I am 75. I got to see the three best decades in the history of the world and in the future of the world.
that is exactly what i noticed in a little town where i have a small property … cartel are every business owner on the main street…. it is amazing…. it seems they love and are protective of the boss… But dont consumers have a responsibility ?
my observations in the little town… Cartels in Mx are equivalent to American ” We The People “
Dear Tropical Coyote
It is actually worse than you describe. NIXON IN 1971 first declared “ War on Drugs “. And yet every USA city -big or small has known areas for easy purchase of any drug at lower prices, greater strength and deadlier than ever before. More deaths and more violence. Makes Vietnam or Afghanistan look like victories.