The cartels killed 70,000 Americans last year with fentanyl alone.
Now Trump just moved against them in a way no president ever has.
The veteran who spent 28 years hunting cartel leaders says what happened this weekend has never happened before.
Trump Signs Shield of the Americas Proclamation With 17 Nations Against Drug Cartels
Donald Trump gathered leaders from 12 Latin American and Caribbean nations and did something no American president has ever done at Trump National Doral in Florida.
He signed a proclamation establishing the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition – a formal military alliance committing every member nation to use lethal force against cartel networks.
"The heart of our agreement is a commitment to using lethal military force to destroy the sinister cartels and terrorist networks," Trump told the assembled heads of state.
"We'll use missiles," Trump said. "If you want us to use a missile, they're extremely accurate. Right into the living room – and that's the end of that cartel person."
Javier Milei flew in from Argentina. Nayib Bukele came from El Salvador. Ecuador's Daniel Noboa made the trip too.
Milei, Bukele, and Noboa didn't come to Florida to sign a diplomatic statement — each of them already went to war with the gangs in their own countries.
Kristi Noem, Trump's newly appointed Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, told the assembled leaders the mission is simple: "Destroy the cartels, go after these narcoterrorists that are destroying our people, killing our children and our grandchildren."
Not managing the problem.
Destroying it.
Former DEA Chief Derek Maltz on the Fentanyl Fight: We Have Never Seen Anything Like This
Derek Maltz spent 28 years at the DEA.
He's watched every administration try – and mostly fail – to break the cartels.
The drugs kept coming.
Maltz went on Fox & Friends Weekend and said what he's never said before.
"We've never seen it."
He was talking about the response.
Maltz pointed to seizures already hitting record numbers – 628,000 carfentanil pills seized in California alone, a substance 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
Record meth seizures in Washington state.
Conversion labs dismantled in Georgia.
"We're on track now because we're using law enforcement domestically to decimate these cartels," Maltz said. "But now to have these countries uniting – we've never seen it."
How the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition Differs From Plan Colombia and the Merida Initiative
Reagan built task forces.
Clinton signed Plan Colombia.
Bush launched the Mérida Initiative and spent $1.4 billion trying to strengthen Mexican institutions against the cartels.
Every one of those approaches treated the cartels as a law enforcement problem to be managed.
Trump is treating them as a military enemy to be destroyed.
The difference isn't rhetorical.
Two days before the Doral summit, Hegseth formally launched the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition at SOUTHCOM headquarters in Florida.
The same week, U.S. Special Forces were already on the ground in Ecuador – advising, providing intelligence, and supporting raids against Los Choneros and Los Lobos, two cartel networks Trump designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Two months ago, U.S. forces captured Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States to face drug conspiracy charges.
Trump cited the same model that destroyed ISIS – a U.S.-led coalition, regional partners, military force, and no mercy.
Plan Colombia trained Colombian cops.
The Americas Counter Cartel Coalition is deploying military forces.
The 96 percent reduction in drug trafficking by sea that Trump cited at the summit didn't happen because of better paperwork.
It happened because Trump changed the rules of engagement.
The cartels know it.
The CJNG's leader – El Mencho, one of the most dangerous criminals on earth – was killed last month in a Mexican military operation.
U.S. intelligence helped make it happen.
"The good guys are stronger than the bad guys," Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote after the operation.
He's right.
And now the good guys just got 17 nations behind them.
The cartels that survived Reagan, Clinton, and Bush did it by waiting out the pressure.
This time there's nowhere to hide.
Sources:
- Taylor Penley, "Ex-DEA chief says he's 'never seen' cartel fight so intense as Trump weighs missiles against traffickers," Fox News, March 8, 2026.
- "Trump Launches 17-Nation Counter Cartel Coalition at Shield of the Americas Summit," Homeland Security Today, March 7, 2026.
- Antonio Graceffo, "Strikes on Ecuador, Shield of the Americas, and the Trump Corollary," The Gateway Pundit, March 7, 2026.
- "Trump's 'total elimination' strategy paved way for fall of cartel kingpin 'El Mencho,'" Fox News, February 2026.
- Michael Swartz, "Taking the Offensive Against Cartels," The Patriot Post, February 24, 2026.
- Ray Walser, "U.S. Strategy Against Mexican Drug Cartels: Flawed and Uncertain," The Heritage Foundation.
