US President Donald Trump has announced that US forces will begin ground operations in Mexico against drug cartels, after months of naval attacks in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean.
"Now we're going to start hitting the ground running on the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico," Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Trump did not provide additional information on the timing or scope of the planned ground attacks.
The statement comes after the capture on Saturday by Delta forces of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro at a compound where he was taking refuge in Caracas, the culmination of a prolonged US military and economic campaign against his government.
Maduro now faces drug trafficking charges in New York.
US attacks on drug ships have resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people since September, according to US officials.
Trump also recently revealed that US forces struck a docking facility for such ships in Venezuela.
The naval campaign has targeted ships suspected of smuggling cocaine and fentanyl in international waters and near the Venezuelan coast.
Trump has described the operations as enforcing a blockade on drug trafficking.
Ground attacks on cartels in Mexico would represent a significant expansion of US military involvement in the region.
Mexico's two most powerful criminal organizations, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, control vast territories and are engaged in a violent rivalry that killed more than 30,000 people last year.
Trump designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in February 2025, a move that Mexico condemned as a threat to its sovereignty and potentially justifying military intervention.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has proposed constitutional reforms to strengthen protections against unauthorized foreign operations and has consistently rejected any US military presence on Mexican soil.
It remains unclear whether Trump will seek authorization from Congress for strikes in Mexico.
The US Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, although presidents have historically launched military operations without official declarations. /Telegraph/
