The move would bring the USS Donald Ford aircraft carrier, along with dozens of stealth fighters and surveillance aircraft, along with other escorted warships, to the coast of Venezuela as the aircraft carrier is about to end its current deployment mission in the Mediterranean.
Sending the USS Donald Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean is a major escalation in the US war against drug gangs.
The USS Donald Ford aircraft carrier group has dozens of F-35 fighter jets. That would pave the way for US special operations or drones to destroy targets on the ground, officials in charge and former officials said.
The expanded presence of the Navy "will strengthen the US's capacity to detect, monitor and deter illegal actors and activities that harm the safety and prosperity of the United States and our security in the Western Hemisphere," said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
For weeks, the Trump administration has been stepping up its campaign against drug gangs after an initial campaign against at least nine ships accused of drug trafficking.
On October 23, President Donald Trump also confirmed to reporters at the White House that the next phase of the drug campaign is to attack targets on the ground.
