Chemical manufacturers in China continue to fuel clandestine labs by churning out fentanyl precursors and contributing to a crisis that kills thousands in the United States every year. In many cases, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, they are delivering precursor chemicals to transnational criminal organizations, or TCOs, which convert them into the addictive and deadly opioid. Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has scheduled fentanyl and many precursors on its controlled substances list, the chemicals used to make the drug continue to flow from China to Mexico because the synthetic opioid is…
The Watch
Russia has ramped up its propaganda machine to peddle lies about the United States’ connections to Latin American drug cartels. Among the claims: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI are enlisting imprisoned members of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels to fight for Ukraine against Russia; and Ukraine is selling donated U.S. weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles and grenade launchers, to a Mexican drug cartel. Fact-checkers have repeatedly debunked these lies. Like Baghdad Bob, Saddam Hussein’s fawning mouthpiece during the Iraq War, Russia spins a web of far-fetched falsehoods to advance its political objectives. Among its top priorities these days…
The United States has been helping to counter transnational criminal organizations, or TCOs, in Latin America for nearly a half-century. In Colombia, the rise of TCOs in the 1980s threatened that country’s internal and regional stability. The export of cocaine to the U.S. damaged citizens and communities. But in 2000, a joint Colombian-U.S. agreement to conduct counter-TCO operations began, formalizing a relationship with origins in the U.S. economic, diplomatic, intelligence and military spheres that helped Colombia dismantle the brutal narcotics regimes. Mexico is now the center of cartel activity threatening U.S. and Mexican national security. TCOs like the Sinaloa Cartel…
Average daily homicides in Mexico dropped in 14 of the first 20 months of Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency, declining by 49% since the final month of the previous administration, the government said May 27, 2026. Daily homicides averaged 44.3 in May, down from the 86.9 daily average in September 2024, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said at Sheinbaum’s daily news briefing. García Harfuch credited a strengthened 120,000-member National Guard and improved intelligence and investigation practices for the crime-fighting gains. He also said about 54,300 people have been arrested for high-impact crimes — including murder, kidnapping and extortion — since the government…
In a significant multiagency operation, the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) Regiment patrol vessel James Fulford, with help from the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force (RTCIPF), intercepted a vessel illegally carrying 240 migrants in TCI territorial waters on May 31, 2026. After evaluating the vessel, the RTCIPF immediately upgraded the mission to a critical incident, prioritizing Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) protocols to avert a maritime disaster. “This mission underscores the efficacy of our multi-agency partnerships,” Lt. Col. Ennis Grant, commanding officer of the TCI Regiment, said in a Regiment news release. “The rapid…
An operation involving the Mexican Army, National Guard and members of the Sinaloa state Public Security Secretariat’s Special Operations Group arrested a regional cartel leader in southern Sinaloa in June 2026. The June 1 operation netted Gabriel Nicolás Martínez Larios, known as “Gabito” or “El 80,” who has been identified as the regional chief of the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. Gabito’s power extended across southern Sinaloa, according to a Mexican government news release. The National Secretariat of Defense said investigators linked Gabito to the killing, kidnapping and extortion of 10 mining company employees in January. Authorities found…
Russia is threatening a strategic Arctic choke point, and if it gains control of the maritime region, it will allow Vladimir Putin’s naval forces to move tactical hypersonic missiles within range of London, Norway’s defense minister warned. In an interview with The Times of London newspaper, Tore Sandvik said he was concerned Moscow may try to control the Bear Gap — a roughly 650-kilometer-wide stretch of water between mainland Norway and the archipelago of Svalbard — to gain access to the North Atlantic. From there, ship- and submarine-launched hypersonic cruise missiles, which have shorter ranges than Russia’s land-based strategic weapons, could easily reach Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom.…
Forces from the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy conducted a joint maritime exercise off Canada’s Pacific coast June 3-4, 2026, marshaling warships, submarines, helicopters and maritime patrol aircraft in a display of the deepening defense partnership between the nations. “By training and operating together, we strengthen interoperability, deepen mutual understanding, and reinforce our shared commitment to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” said Rear Adm. David Patchell, commander of RCN Maritime Forces Pacific and Joint Task Force Pacific. Held in waters off British Columbia, the exercise saw one of the ROK Navy’s most advanced…
The commanding officer of the Rhode Island National Guard visited The Bahamas in May 2026, the latest exchange in a long-standing partnership between the United States National Guard and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF). Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Chevalier, the Rhode Island National Guard’s adjutant general, discussed regional security, professional force development and disaster response plans with Commodore Floyd Moxey, the RBDF commander, along with their senior staffs at the Coral Harbour Base headquarters in Nassau. The RBDF and the Rhode Island National Guard have been partners in the National Guard’s State Partnership Program since 2005. Accompanied by his…
Drones built in Canada could be headed for the battlefield in Ukraine, thanks to a new partnership formed by the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND), the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and two drone manufacturers. In May, at the defense trade show CANSEC 2026 in Ottawa, Ontario, the DND and Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence signed the deal to support the production of Ukrainian unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in Canada. It kicks off a new collaboration between Airlogix, a Ukrainian defense technology company, and Sentinel Research and Development (R&D), a Canadian UAS manufacturer. With backing from the governments of Canada and…