Which national coast guards and navies were involved in maritime cocaine interdictions linked to Venezuela over the last 12 months?
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Over the past 12 months, the principal maritime forces publicly tied to cocaine interdictions linked to Venezuela have been United States services — chiefly the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy — operating in a broader, sometimes multilateral framework that involved at least the Dominican Navy and unspecified “multinational air and maritime forces” under Joint Interagency Task Force–South coordination [1] [2] [3]. Reports also note Venezuela’s Navy began escorting tankers amid rising tensions as U.S. actions expanded in the region, and independent organizations and governments have sharply disputed the legality and human-rights implications of some U.S. strikes [4] [5] [3].
1. U.S. Coast Guard: the law‑enforcement lead in interdictions
The U.S. Coast Guard has been characterized by officials as the lead law‑enforcement agency for maritime interdictions, and it publicly celebrated a record offload and seizure operation involving tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine that U.S. authorities traced in part to vessels that “left Venezuela,” with Rear Adm. Adam Chamie and Justice Department officials framing the haul as the result of coordinated efforts [1]. Coast Guard leaders described these interdictions as part of a larger “all‑hands” strategy alongside military and law‑enforcement partners, and the service reported record annual interdiction totals in fiscal 2025 [6] [2].
2. U.S. Navy: force projection, surveillance and strike support
U.S. Navy units provided surveillance, logistics and — in some instances according to multiple reports — direct strike or strike support against suspected drug vessels in international waters; open‑source lists of the 2025 Caribbean deployment include named destroyers, cruisers, amphibious ships and other assets tied to the operation (USS Gravely, USS Stockdale, USS Jason Dunham, USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio, USS Fort Lauderdale, USS Lake Erie, USS Minneapolis‑Saint Paul, USS Newport News, MV Ocean Trader) [7]. Military commentaries and service publications describe the Navy’s role as layered with Coast Guard law enforcement, including maritime patrol aircraft such as P‑8s and strike-capable platforms used in precision actions reported in September and thereafter [2] [7].
3. Multinational partners: named and unnamed contributors
Officials and task‑force leaders have repeatedly said interdictions were carried out with multinational air and maritime forces, but publicly available reporting in the supplied sources specifies the Dominican Navy as a partner that salvaged a large cocaine seizure after an attack and notes Joint Interagency Task Force–South coordination without listing a comprehensive roster of partner navies or coast guards [3] [1]. U.S. officials described the offloads as a team effort in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, while media accounts and Pentagon summaries emphasize continued cooperation with regional partners despite diplomatic strains [1] [6].
4. Venezuela’s Navy and state response to interdictions
Facing U.S. maritime pressure, Venezuela ordered its navy to escort oil‑carrying vessels and publicly framed U.S. actions as an aggressive campaign; reporting shows Venezuela’s government responded by repositioning naval escorts and condemning U.S. strikes, underscoring an operational counter‑presence in Venezuelan waters even as U.S. forces targeted traffickers in international zones [4] [7].
5. Legal controversy and competing narratives
Multiple outlets and observers have questioned the legality and prudence of lethal strikes on suspected drug boats, and experts, human‑rights groups and some governments described U.S. maritime strikes as potentially unlawful or extrajudicial; contemporaneous reporting catalogues both the U.S. justification — disrupting Venezuela‑linked traffickers — and sharp international criticism alleging overreach [3] [5]. The tension between Coast Guard‑style interdiction (seizure, arrest) and Department of Defense strike operations is a recurring theme in analyses of the campaign [2].
6. What the record does and does not show
The supplied reporting supports naming the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy as the central U.S. services conducting cocaine interdictions linked to Venezuela, documents at least one regional partner (the Dominican Navy) participating on specific seizures, and cites broader “multinational” involvement coordinated through JIATF‑South without a complete public list of other national coast guards or navies [1] [3] [2]. Sources do not provide a definitive, exhaustive roster of every foreign naval or coast‑guard unit that participated in interdictions over the last 12 months, and thus assertions beyond those cited here cannot be made from the supplied material [1].