Colombian Aerospace Force (CAF) officers met with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) commander and high-ranking Bahamian officials in May 2026 to discuss deepening cooperation in surveilling, disrupting and destroying illegal smuggling networks that have connected South America’s top cocaine producer with a contraband transit point to the United States.
The Bahamas Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe, Permanent Secretary Bridgette Hepburn and RBDF Commander Floyd P. Moxey, along with his executive leadership team, met CAF representatives on May 7 at the RBDF’s Coral Harbour Base headquarters in Nassau. The discussions centered on formalizing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the nations on surveillance flights crossing their national air spaces.
The Colombian-led effort already has resulted in joint military exercises, most recently in October 2025. Dubbed Zeus Arcano II, the maritime and aerial operation included CAF exercises in a section of the Caribbean Sea known for illicit air traffic connected to drug smuggling. “This initiative aims to strengthen regional cooperative security and combat transnational organized crime (TCO) through real-world air interdiction operations,” stated a news release from the Chilean Air Force, one of at least 10 observer countries that analyzed daily results of the missions at CAF headquarters in Bogotá. The other observer nations included The Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru.
Zeus Arcano strives to achieve a “blanket effect” to counter TCO activities in the Caribbean by strengthening coordination between air control authorities. Suspicious planes will be tracked through multiple national airspaces, boosting the chances of apprehending smugglers. The proposed MOU would kickstart intelligence and information sharing between The Bahamas and Colombia with coordinated operations and air support involving both nations. “The meeting further reinforced ongoing efforts to finalize collaborative frameworks that will deepen operational partnerships between both nations,” the RBDF news release stated.
Zeus Arcano springs from a 2019 Colombian plan to coordinate binational surveillance of drug smuggling networks. Now encompassing the Caribbean as well as South American nations with Pacific coastlines, the hemispheric focus has strengthened an effective response to burgeoning TCO activities in the eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, according to a CAF news release. Brig. Gen. Juan Jaime Martínez Ossa, CAF commander of air and space operations, stated in the 2024 release that “this is how the capabilities that the participants have to prevent the illicit use of critical aeronautical infrastructure, maintain control of common airspace between nations and combat illicit economies are integrated.”