The Pentagon made waves Monday when it announced the deployment of the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer Gravely to patrol near the southern border, with a second destroyer reportedly expected to join the effort.
U.S. Northern Command announced that the Gravely will be sailing with a U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment, or LEDET, team on board, with sailors expected to work closely with LEDET personnel as a part of drug trafficking interdictions, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Joint Staff director for operations.
Although it’s been called unusual for Navy destroyers to deploy in this role, it is not without precedent.
In 2022, the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer Momsen worked with a Coast Guard interdiction team in the Gulf of Oman to intercept $39 million in illegal drugs. The same year, the destroyer Nitze intercepted an estimated $20 million in illicit drugs at sea. And in 2024, the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser Leyte Gulf and a LEDET team intercepted a semi-submersible craft in the Atlantic packed with 2,370 kilos of cocaine.
What is noteworthy about recent developments is not that Navy warships are being used for drug interdiction missions or to counteract transnational crime, but the speed and concentration with which they are being deployed to this area.
While many Americans are well aware of drugs entering the country via overland routes across the U.S. land border with Mexico, fewer know the prevalence of maritime drug trafficking and the methods of stifling it.
Criminal organizations use a wide variety of vessels and seaborne craft to get illicit drugs into the U.S. These can include fishing boats and submersibles, which are being increasingly operated remotely using new technology.
Last August, the Mexican Navy detained 15 individuals after intercepting about 7,200 kilograms of illicit drugs in two high-speed at-sea chases that were captured on video.
One trafficking conspiracy saw literal tons of cocaine trafficked from South America to various locations over a period of about seven years starting in 2013. Traffickers in that operation used motorboats which would then carry loads of cocaine to a fishing vessel.
The Navy routinely partners with law enforcement agencies to halt traffickers and intercept illegal drug shipments. In 2019, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, working together with the Drug Enforcement Administration, played a role in preventing three Colombian nationals from smuggling an estimated $200 million in cocaine into the U.S. via a submarine. In 2021, the Navy, in collaboration with DEA, opened an interagency counternarcotics facility in Bahrain to make joint operations smoother.
Coast Guard LEDET teams, meanwhile, often operate from Navy destroyers, such as the Gravely. The LEDET program, first established in 1982, focuses largely on waterborne drug interdiction. Members of LEDET teams specialize in skills related to interdicting and boarding vessels, humanitarian response and anti-piracy and counterterrorism operations. These personnel regularly deploy with both U.S. Navy and allied vessels.
Just last year, the Navy and the Coast Guard — through joint patrols and partnerships with law enforcement — cooperated to stop nearly 15 tons of cocaine from entering the U.S.
While the Navy’s mission on the southern border is not out of step with operations over the years, the move of warships to the area is indicative of the current administration’s attempt to establish a much firmer grip on approaches to the U.S. from the region.
“It’s not only vital for the United States to have control of our border via land,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a release. “It’s equally important to control our territorial waters, and this deployment directly supports U.S. Northern Command’s mission to protect our sovereignty.”
As overland routes into the U.S. from across the border with Mexico have become more impassable due to an increased U.S. military presence, transnational criminal organizations — which operate as businesses — will seek to find alternative routes.
This month, the Coast Guard announced the interdiction of about $141 million in illicit drugs being smuggled at sea and the arrest of 17 suspected traffickers.
Zita Ballinger Fletcher previously served as editor of Military History Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and as the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in military history.
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