Southern Command (Southcom) area and strikes alleged drug-trafficking boats on both sides of South America., The Hill reported. 

USS Gerald R. Ford, carrying more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft, entered the Southcom area of responsibility after being directed by the Department of Defense (DOD) to depart the Mediterranean in late October for what officials argued was assistance in dismantling transnational criminal organizations and curbing drug-smuggling. 

“The enhanced US force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement on Tuesday. 

“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations,” Parnell added. 

MA/PR