SOUTHCOM Enhanced Counter Narcotics Operations
SOUTHCOM launched an all out effort to fight the drug trafficking into the United Stars as deaths from drug overdoses rise at an alarming rate, and expected to spike during the lockdowns and loss of jobs resulting from the Covid Pandemic.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Erick A. Parsons/Released)
In 2017, there were 70,237 drug overdose deaths in the United States.
In 2018, 67,367 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths decreased by 4.6% from 2017 (21.7 per 100,000) to 2018 (20.7 per 100,000). Opioids—mainly synthetic opioids (other than methadone)—are currently the main driver of drug overdose deaths.
The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased from 6.1 per 100,000 standard population in 1999 to 21.7 in 2017. The rate increased on average by 10% per year from 1999 through 2006, by 3% per year from 2006 through 2014, and by 16% per year from 2014 through 2017.
Drug deaths in America, which fell for the first time in 25 years in 2018, rose to record numbers in 2019 and are continuing to climb, a resurgence that is being complicated and perhaps worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, NYT reported, with al, figures based on CDC counts according to NYT . Those figures are an undercount as some deaths are not recorded or misrecorded.
More than 800,000 people in the United States die from cardiovascular disease each year—that’s 1 in every 3 deaths, and about 160,000 of them occur in people under age 65. How many of those in the younger are drug related is unknown.
Nearly 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — an increase of 5 percent from 2018.
Mission of SOUTHCOM in fighting drug trafficking ( Photos In this feature detail recent Busts)
On April 1, 2020, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) began enhanced counternarcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to disrupt the flow of drugs in support of Presidential national security objectives.
Location:
Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Resources:
Additional U.S. capabilities include:
- Navy destroyers and helicopters
- Coast Guard cutters and helicopters
- Navy littoral combat ships
- Customs and Border Protection maritime patrol aircraft
- Navy P-8 patrol aircraft
- Air Force E-3 AWACS aircraft (ISR) and E-8 JSTARS aircraft (ISR)
- Security Forces Assistance Brigade (SFAB) Company (advise and assist)
Ally & partner contributions:
- 22 nations provide intelligence and operations support as part of Joint Interagency Task Force – South (JIATF-South)
- Key partners in this fight: Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, as well as European partners France, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom — will provide capabilities. 50% of interdictions last year involved partners.
U.S. whole of government efforts continue with interagency assets from Customs and Border Protection, DEA and others.
These enhanced counter-narcotics operations constitute an increase in Naval destroyers, combat ships, aircraft and helicopters, and Coast Guard cutters. Additional assets double capabilities in the region.
Purpose:
Our increased presence will:
- Disrupt the flow of illicit drugs to the homeland, thereby protecting Americans
- Reassure allies and partners; build their capacity to contribute to the counternarcotics fight