(MENAFN) The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's most powerful aircraft carrier, sailed into the Caribbean Sea on Sunday as part of the Trump administration's intensifying military offensive against drug trafficking and transnational criminal organizations.

The deployment comes following orders from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aimed at advancing President Donald Trump's mission to dismantle criminal networks viewed as existential threats to American security, according to US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

The massive carrier, carrying more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft, will join forces with existing US military assets in the region, including the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and a marine expeditionary unit.

All units now operate under the newly formed Joint Task Force Southern Spear, which focuses on crippling criminal networks, the command stated.

The Gerald R. Ford arrives with its full strike group, featuring nine squadrons from Carrier Air Wing Eight, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan, and the air defense command ship USS Winston S. Churchill.

The deployment unfolds against a backdrop of escalating tensions with Venezuela.

US military operations targeting alleged drug trafficking in the Caribbean launched in September with a strike on a Venezuelan speedboat, and the campaign broadened to encompass the Eastern Pacific by late October.

Since operations began, at least 21 attacks against drug traffickers have been executed, resulting in 82 deaths.

SOUTHCOM oversees US military operations spanning 31 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, a region Washington considers critical for both hemispheric stability and combating trafficking networks.

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