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Unified military command and control of drug interdiction activities
The Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA) of 1986 gives the United States broad law‑enforcement jurisdiction to board, seize, and prosecute drug trafficking on vessels on the high seas and to trea...
U.S. maritime drug-interdiction authority is built on a mix of statutes and implementing instruments centered on the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (MDLEA, codified at 46 U.S.C. ch. 705) and implem...
U.S. maritime interdictions are governed by a mix of domestic regulations, DoD/Service doctrine and international law: commanders retain an inherent right of self‑defense and must use only force neces...
Lawful interdiction at sea has long been carried out by law-enforcement agencies under statutory frameworks such as the U.S. Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act and by coast guards and navies using esta...
International law limits use of force at sea: states generally must treat maritime drug interdiction as law enforcement, not armed conflict, and rely on boarding consent, flag-state jurisdiction, and ...
Multiple formal intelligence- and information‑sharing partnerships target maritime drug trafficking in the Caribbean and approaches to Venezuela: the U.S.-led Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF...
The available reporting shows the U.S. Coast Guard’s maritime drug interdiction effort grew in apparent scale in 2024: the service intercepted roughly 106.3 metric tons of cocaine at sea in 2024 versu...
Border security, multinational law‑enforcement cooperation, and financial disruption are the core strategies U.S. agencies emphasize to reduce foreign drug trafficking: U.S. defense and interagency ef...
Multiple U.S. agencies — notably U.S. Southern Command (military), the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, and new Pentagon counternarcotics task forces — have taken the lead in intercepting suspected drug shi...
Venezuela is consistently described in sources as a transit hub rather than a primary producer of cocaine; most U.S.-bound cocaine originates in Colombia and travels on Pacific routes, while a smaller...
The U.S. Coast Guard is the lead maritime law‑enforcement service intercepting U.S.‑bound drug shipments at sea, contributing to record seizures in FY2025 — nearly 510,000 pounds (~231,000 kg / ~225 m...