Operation Hawkeye is a sustained US Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) counter-narcotics campaign targeting drug trafficking organizations moving cocaine, fentanyl precursors, and marijuana through the Caribbean corridor, particularly via Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Lesser Antilles. The operation integrates US Coast Guard, DEA, CBP, and military assets to intercept maritime and aerial drug shipments. In 2024-2025, fentanyl trafficking through Caribbean routes surged alongside traditional cocaine flows from Colombian and Venezuelan-linked cartels. Gang destabilization in Haiti has further complicated interdiction efforts, as trafficking networks exploit the security vacuum. The US Southern Command expanded aerial surveillance and maritime patrol operations in response, coordinating with Dominican, Jamaican, and Eastern Caribbean authorities.
USCG Cutter intercepted a semi-submersible vessel 80 nautical miles west of Puerto Rico carrying approximately 2,400 kg of cocaine linked to a Colombian trafficking cell. Three traffickers detained and transferred to DEA custody in San Juan.
US intelligence reports confirmed that Haitian gang coalition 'Viv Ansanm' began facilitating Caribbean drug transshipment through Port-au-Prince's collapsed port infrastructure, complicating JIATF-S interdiction operations and raising interagency coordination concerns.
DEA and Dominican National Drug Control Directorate jointly dismantled a Caribbean-based fentanyl precursor distribution cell with links to Mexican Sinaloa Cartel. Fourteen arrests made across Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macorís; $3.2M in assets seized.
US Southern Command deployed additional P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and E-2D Hawkeye AEW platforms to Roosevelt Roads forward operating site in Puerto Rico, doubling surveillance coverage of the Mona Passage and Windward Passage drug corridors.
JIATF-S intelligence fusion cell publicly confirmed operational links between Venezuelan Tren de Aragua transnational gang and Caribbean maritime drug routes. Treasury OFAC issued new Kingpin Act designations against four Venezuelan nationals coordinating shipments through Trinidad and Tobago.