Trump: U.S. military mobilizing against drug cartels seeking to exploit U.S. focus on coronavirus

Drug cartels, including those fueling the Maduro regime in Venezuela, are seeking to exploit the United States' focus on eradicating the coronavirus epidemic, and the U.S. military is mobilizing to respond, President Trump said Wednesday. 

"We're focused on so many other parts of the country and even parts of the world," Trump said during the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing. "We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives."

Trump said the new military initiative would include cooperation with the 22 partner nations, with the U.S. Southern Command, based near Miami, planning an increase in surveillance, disruption and the seizure of shipments and provide additional support for existing eradication efforts.

Trump said the U.S. would also deploy additional U.S. Navy destroyers, combat ships, aircraft and helicopters, U.S. Coast Guard cutters, and doubling Air Force surveillance capabilities in the region. 

"We don't want to lose ground," he said.  "We will never have been so focused on drugs coming into our country as we are right now." 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the offensive, launching Wednesday in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, would proceed indefinitely and that U.S. defense forces would "make adjustments from there. This will be an assessment we will do as an inter-agency team."

Mark A. Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "We're at war with COVID-19, we're at war with terrorists, and we are at war with the drug cartels as well," 

Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday's military offensive comes in the wake of the Justice Department  unsealing charges last week against 16 former members the former Maduro regime for moving 250 metric tons of drugs a year.

"We are not interested in half measures," Barr said. "This drug war has gone on for many decades. ... the cartels have to be defeated, both for the people of this country and the people of Mexico and Venezuela." 

Trump earlier Wednesday tweeted that Iran may be planning a "sneak attack" on American troops in Iraq. He warned that, should this come to pass, it will come with a "heavy price" for Iran.

"If something happens, it's going to be very painful for the other side," Trump said during the briefing.