WEBVTT 0 00:00:00.090 --> 00:00:03.130 Something huge is happening across Latin America right now. 1 00:00:03.369 --> 00:00:06.530 US Marine Raiders and special forces are officially 2 00:00:06.530 --> 00:00:09.810 joining ground raids against the cartel inside Ecuador, 3 00:00:10.050 --> 00:00:12.949 leading to the arrest of over 30 narco-terrorists, 4 00:00:13.170 --> 00:00:14.750 because advise and assist 5 00:00:14.930 --> 00:00:16.690 now comes with a breaching charge. 6 00:00:16.889 --> 00:00:19.370 But I found this is just one small part of 7 00:00:19.370 --> 00:00:22.809 something even crazier that's happening across the entire Western Hemisphere. 8 00:00:23.170 --> 00:00:25.959 American combat aircraft are being snuck into the region, 9 00:00:26.290 --> 00:00:28.520 new covert action campaigns are being launched, 10 00:00:28.610 --> 00:00:29.170 and it's all. 11 00:00:29.429 --> 00:00:32.328 Building toward a much larger mission that is 12 00:00:32.328 --> 00:00:34.598 unlike anything we've seen in recent history. 13 00:00:34.848 --> 00:00:37.319 It comes after a US Coast Guard vessel was fired 14 00:00:37.319 --> 00:00:41.598 upon by suspected cartel members less than a week ago. 15 00:00:41.769 --> 00:00:44.929 Today I want to show you how both the United States military and 16 00:00:44.929 --> 00:00:50.308 the cartel are more and more deploying boots on the ground into foreign countries 17 00:00:50.648 --> 00:00:53.278 to fight each other outside of Mexico. 18 00:00:53.449 --> 00:00:58.449 The surge of the Mexican cartel into Ecuador has resulted in a huge rise in killing. 19 00:00:58.847 --> 00:01:01.638 Kidnappings and high-profile assassinations 20 00:01:01.807 --> 00:01:03.368 against the country's politicians, 21 00:01:03.577 --> 00:01:06.447 as everyone fights over control of the strategic drug 22 00:01:06.447 --> 00:01:09.667 smuggling routes that lead to America and Europe. 23 00:01:09.968 --> 00:01:12.468 One international cocaine route wasn't enough 24 00:01:12.468 --> 00:01:14.277 to destabilize the country apparently. 25 00:01:14.447 --> 00:01:15.197 In response, 26 00:01:15.447 --> 00:01:18.917 the convoy of American special forces operators moved 27 00:01:18.917 --> 00:01:22.267 on to target houses in their pre-dawn raid. 28 00:01:22.517 --> 00:01:25.727 The hits were on these very wealthy gated developments. 29 00:01:25.847 --> 00:01:27.657 They were done in coordination with raid. 30 00:01:28.086 --> 00:01:31.207 Spread across 8 different cities in Ecuador and they 31 00:01:31.207 --> 00:01:34.186 were synchronized to kick off at the exact same time 32 00:01:34.366 --> 00:01:37.567 to prevent this from leaking out to other cartel members. 33 00:01:37.787 --> 00:01:38.446 Earlier this week, 34 00:01:38.567 --> 00:01:43.107 Ecuador's Defense Ministry said the US military assisted in another operation, 35 00:01:43.366 --> 00:01:44.306 killing 3, 36 00:01:44.647 --> 00:01:47.236 including an alleged leader of the Chros group, 37 00:01:47.567 --> 00:01:52.037 bringing down a local branch of the Mexican CJNG cartel, 38 00:01:52.327 --> 00:01:53.126 American drones, 39 00:01:53.247 --> 00:01:54.446 surveillance systems, 40 00:01:54.516 --> 00:01:55.527 satellite tracking, 41 00:01:55.647 --> 00:01:57.007 and armored US. 42 00:01:57.125 --> 00:02:02.646 Vehicles were seen outfitted with drone jamming antennas and counter jammers, 43 00:02:02.765 --> 00:02:06.435 as one does on routine counter-narcotics operations. 44 00:02:06.606 --> 00:02:10.386 That's a little known concept called counter counter surveillance, 45 00:02:10.595 --> 00:02:14.785 because the cartel is now savvy enough that they're using electronic warfare 46 00:02:14.925 --> 00:02:16.516 to defeat American drones, 47 00:02:16.845 --> 00:02:20.035 new tactics that they've learned and brought over from the war in Ukraine. 48 00:02:20.356 --> 00:02:23.046 So US Special Forces teams arrived carrying 49 00:02:23.046 --> 00:02:26.255 electronic warfare to defeat the criminals electronic. 50 00:02:26.425 --> 00:02:27.054 Chronic warfare. 51 00:02:27.164 --> 00:02:30.955 Cocaine logistics now has its own spectrum management department. 52 00:02:31.085 --> 00:02:32.865 This footage from the raid shows us the 53 00:02:32.865 --> 00:02:35.684 lavish lifestyle that these criminals were living. 54 00:02:35.925 --> 00:02:37.684 This giant beautiful mansion, 55 00:02:37.845 --> 00:02:40.585 tons of expensive luxury jewelry and watches 56 00:02:41.044 --> 00:02:43.024 from all of their ill-gotten gains. 57 00:02:43.125 --> 00:02:47.285 It's also a peek into how these organizations tear families and lives apart 58 00:02:47.285 --> 00:02:50.514 from the people who love them as they lose their house and everything. 59 00:02:50.804 --> 00:02:53.044 Local language sources on the ground reported that 60 00:02:53.044 --> 00:02:55.225 this operation was actually in the works for over 61 00:02:55.384 --> 00:02:55.524 8. 62 00:02:55.893 --> 00:02:56.434 Months. 63 00:02:56.483 --> 00:02:59.164 Over 300 Ecuadorian police officers, 64 00:02:59.363 --> 00:03:01.524 including their elite GEMA unit, 65 00:03:01.764 --> 00:03:04.923 took part in the massive operation alongside 50 66 00:03:04.923 --> 00:03:07.843 American operators about a platoon of special forces 67 00:03:08.123 --> 00:03:10.203 who are doing missions where you could probably wouldn't 68 00:03:10.203 --> 00:03:11.404 even need to pay them to do this, 69 00:03:11.524 --> 00:03:12.994 just GG easy. 70 00:03:13.123 --> 00:03:16.684 The US contingent included members of the Green Berets from 7th Group, 71 00:03:16.964 --> 00:03:19.634 whose area of operations is already Latin America, 72 00:03:19.843 --> 00:03:22.083 and surprisingly it appears Marine Raiders, 73 00:03:22.164 --> 00:03:24.804 an elite unit that's one of the newest to the US Special. 74 00:03:25.003 --> 00:03:25.983 Forces community 75 00:03:26.162 --> 00:03:30.442 was seen on the scene with their uniforms and a patch that gave them away. 76 00:03:30.563 --> 00:03:31.393 But when you think about it, 77 00:03:31.483 --> 00:03:33.522 Marine Special Forces are perfect in a 78 00:03:33.522 --> 00:03:35.542 sense for this kind of counter-cartel mission 79 00:03:35.763 --> 00:03:37.632 because of their maritime capabilities. 80 00:03:37.882 --> 00:03:41.703 Many of these missions take place around ports and interdictions on water. 81 00:03:41.912 --> 00:03:44.763 It's really a good fit for this marine Special Forces unit 82 00:03:44.923 --> 00:03:48.643 that's been looking for where they fit into SOCOM overall. 83 00:03:48.882 --> 00:03:51.763 So the mission was backed by DEA and SOUTHCOM 84 00:03:51.763 --> 00:03:54.082 according to several major news outlets and press. 85 00:03:54.361 --> 00:03:56.882 Releases from the US and Ecuador governments. 86 00:03:57.121 --> 00:03:59.201 According to Ecuador's Interior Minister, 87 00:03:59.442 --> 00:04:00.401 John Reinberg, 88 00:04:00.621 --> 00:04:02.891 among those apprehended were the network's leader, 89 00:04:03.042 --> 00:04:04.031 financial backers, 90 00:04:04.201 --> 00:04:06.001 and members of the operational crew, 91 00:04:06.121 --> 00:04:07.091 the whole shebang. 92 00:04:07.201 --> 00:04:10.472 What stood out to me personally as different in this 93 00:04:10.472 --> 00:04:12.761 operation is that during the press conference in Ecuador, 94 00:04:12.882 --> 00:04:15.942 they plainly stated that the criminals that they apprehended 95 00:04:16.122 --> 00:04:18.591 had no connection to local gangs. 96 00:04:18.841 --> 00:04:20.682 Ecuador's interior minister said that the 97 00:04:20.682 --> 00:04:23.312 networks answered directly to Mexico's Julia. 98 00:04:23.760 --> 00:04:25.520 Nueva Generation cartel, 99 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:26.721 the CGNJ, 100 00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:29.721 which means a Mexican cartel was running a kind of 101 00:04:29.721 --> 00:04:32.960 regional branch office from the Pacific coast of South America. 102 00:04:33.321 --> 00:04:36.790 This is crazy because for years the cartel has done the opposite. 103 00:04:37.001 --> 00:04:39.721 They farm out their work to service providers, 104 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:41.640 essentially people already living there, 105 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:43.821 a kind of bizarre proxy war 106 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:45.230 where Los Chernos, 107 00:04:45.311 --> 00:04:47.031 which is an Ecuadorian gang, 108 00:04:47.401 --> 00:04:50.860 became the logistics arm of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, 109 00:04:51.080 --> 00:04:52.680 while the Ecuadorian gang. 110 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:57.000 Los Lobos were backed by the Mexican CJNG. 111 00:04:57.160 --> 00:04:59.230 That is as weird as it sounds, 112 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:00.959 not a proxy war of state powers, 113 00:05:01.019 --> 00:05:02.950 but a proxy war of criminal powers, 114 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:07.600 and the fight was just as brutal down south in Ecuador as it was in Mexico. 115 00:05:07.799 --> 00:05:11.559 And that's why what's interesting about this is that the network that the US 116 00:05:11.559 --> 00:05:14.519 Special Forces helped dismantle in September was 117 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:16.730 not made up of middlemen like usual. 118 00:05:17.059 --> 00:05:19.320 Instead it was Sicarios who were straight out 119 00:05:19.320 --> 00:05:21.959 of the Huajalisco New Generation cartel that. 120 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:22.718 Themselves. 121 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:23.799 If that's accurate, 122 00:05:23.919 --> 00:05:26.359 then the cartels are now running the shop themselves. 123 00:05:26.489 --> 00:05:30.338 What we're seeing here is an important concept of disintermediation, 124 00:05:30.438 --> 00:05:34.509 meaning that the cartel is eliminating intermediate layers like middlemen, 125 00:05:34.598 --> 00:05:38.109 which allows the cartel to make more direct transactions. 126 00:05:38.398 --> 00:05:41.319 Basically sending their own men there to run things, 127 00:05:41.329 --> 00:05:44.098 and it removes that layer of plausible deniability, 128 00:05:44.278 --> 00:05:46.118 and that raises the huge question that 129 00:05:46.239 --> 00:05:48.778 I don't hear many people asking is why would 130 00:05:48.778 --> 00:05:51.239 the Mexican cartels start cutting out their local. 131 00:05:51.838 --> 00:05:53.757 and move closer to the source. 132 00:05:54.037 --> 00:05:55.157 I think I know why. 133 00:05:55.388 --> 00:05:59.018 Mexican cartels have become far more global than many people realize. 134 00:05:59.278 --> 00:06:01.937 The DEA currently says that the CJNG 135 00:06:02.078 --> 00:06:04.597 has established a presence in more than 40 countries, 136 00:06:04.778 --> 00:06:05.518 including in Europe. 137 00:06:05.638 --> 00:06:10.877 The DEA legitimately calls it a franchise model like McDonald's but for fentanyl, 138 00:06:11.078 --> 00:06:14.467 and they organize themselves in a surprisingly specialized way, 139 00:06:14.667 --> 00:06:18.558 dividing these Mexican cartel members into envoys 140 00:06:18.558 --> 00:06:20.257 that go there to negotiate deals, 141 00:06:20.368 --> 00:06:20.458 broker. 142 00:06:21.036 --> 00:06:22.796 that connect supplies to sellers, 143 00:06:23.046 --> 00:06:24.226 logistics personnel, 144 00:06:24.316 --> 00:06:25.957 and money launderer providers, 145 00:06:26.157 --> 00:06:27.877 and there's even Mexican cooks, 146 00:06:28.066 --> 00:06:28.157 uh, 147 00:06:28.277 --> 00:06:28.476 you know, 148 00:06:28.557 --> 00:06:30.157 like methamphetamine cooks 149 00:06:30.277 --> 00:06:31.636 who specialize in production. 150 00:06:31.997 --> 00:06:35.796 Before all these roles would be outsourced to Ecuadorian criminals, 151 00:06:35.916 --> 00:06:38.316 but now more and more it's their official arm, 152 00:06:38.437 --> 00:06:41.076 and globalization comes for just about everybody eventually. 153 00:06:41.196 --> 00:06:43.907 Two Mexican cartel liaisons were arrested in Colombia 154 00:06:43.907 --> 00:06:46.036 in June doing almost exactly the same thing. 155 00:06:46.196 --> 00:06:49.277 Colombia's defense minister said that the two Mexican suspects 156 00:06:49.437 --> 00:06:49.796 at their mission. 157 00:06:50.026 --> 00:06:53.506 was to coordinate cocaine trafficking with the Clann de Gulfo. 158 00:06:53.996 --> 00:06:58.196 They are more and more sending out foreign officers and globalizing. 159 00:06:58.436 --> 00:07:00.675 But the reason I think why we're seeing Mexican 160 00:07:00.675 --> 00:07:04.256 cartel members themselves on the ground in places like Ecuador 161 00:07:04.395 --> 00:07:07.415 is because that kind of direct representation 162 00:07:07.596 --> 00:07:09.696 gives the CJNG cartel 163 00:07:10.075 --> 00:07:11.515 more control over purchasing. 164 00:07:11.575 --> 00:07:15.115 It gives them a direct line on how their product's being stored, 165 00:07:15.395 --> 00:07:17.026 how it's being shipped and scheduled, 166 00:07:17.156 --> 00:07:19.075 and how they're handling their relationship. 167 00:07:19.434 --> 00:07:21.545 With overseas buyers in Europe. 168 00:07:21.755 --> 00:07:25.625 We're talking about the cartel adhering to the age-old adage, 169 00:07:25.795 --> 00:07:26.484 the saying, 170 00:07:26.755 --> 00:07:28.135 if you want something done right, 171 00:07:28.345 --> 00:07:29.334 you gotta do it yourself. 172 00:07:29.915 --> 00:07:34.815 They need reliable access to few extremely valuable nodes there. 173 00:07:34.954 --> 00:07:36.915 The other reason direct on the ground 174 00:07:36.915 --> 00:07:39.494 representation for the cartel is so important, 175 00:07:39.635 --> 00:07:42.915 is because of the problem of controlling legitimate infrastructure. 176 00:07:43.114 --> 00:07:46.095 A 2025 World Customs Organization study 177 00:07:46.274 --> 00:07:48.394 found that from more than 2,6, 178 00:07:48.503 --> 00:07:51.824 100 cases of seizing drugs and maritime cargo, 179 00:07:52.114 --> 00:07:53.903 about 70% of the time, 180 00:07:54.114 --> 00:07:56.313 you could trace that back to the cartel 181 00:07:56.313 --> 00:07:59.424 having help somewhere inside the shipping supply chain. 182 00:07:59.674 --> 00:08:03.533 So the decisive guy in just a billion dollar narcotics network 183 00:08:03.954 --> 00:08:06.303 is a part-time worker at the dock named Carl. 184 00:08:06.514 --> 00:08:09.414 This is why the CJNG cartel 185 00:08:09.593 --> 00:08:13.533 would want its own people on the ground in Ecuador despite the risk, 186 00:08:13.794 --> 00:08:16.743 because even though a local gang can move product, 187 00:08:16.973 --> 00:08:17.634 you need a. 188 00:08:17.752 --> 00:08:19.812 Trusted cartel representatives sometimes 189 00:08:20.233 --> 00:08:21.933 to supervise the workflow 190 00:08:22.162 --> 00:08:24.912 until a US Marine raider blows open your mansion door one 191 00:08:24.912 --> 00:08:27.173 night and puts his size 11 boot on your face. 192 00:08:27.583 --> 00:08:29.372 And this principle of needing to be on the ground 193 00:08:29.372 --> 00:08:32.643 to get something done right yourself is executed both ways, 194 00:08:32.871 --> 00:08:34.712 including the FBI because over the summer, 195 00:08:34.751 --> 00:08:37.072 the US footprint grew larger in Ecuador, 196 00:08:37.182 --> 00:08:40.222 with the FBI opening its first permanent office in the country. 197 00:08:40.352 --> 00:08:43.582 7th Group Special Forces have also been photographed with Ecuadorian 198 00:08:43.582 --> 00:08:46.913 forces in many images released by their Ministry of Defense. 199 00:08:47.262 --> 00:08:48.512 And by August of that year, 200 00:08:48.632 --> 00:08:51.791 Ecuadorian officials were stating that American special forces 201 00:08:51.791 --> 00:08:54.471 were conducting operations with their own security forces, 202 00:08:54.581 --> 00:08:56.952 so what we're observing is direct fighting 203 00:08:56.952 --> 00:08:59.421 now between the cartel and American forces, 204 00:08:59.552 --> 00:09:01.351 but notice how it's on the periphery. 205 00:09:01.591 --> 00:09:04.271 The new geopolitical rules of this war in Latin 206 00:09:04.271 --> 00:09:06.781 America is that you can fight each other directly, 207 00:09:07.072 --> 00:09:09.742 but you can only be in countries that aren't Mexico. 208 00:09:09.911 --> 00:09:10.411 So far, 209 00:09:10.671 --> 00:09:12.331 the home of all this conflict, 210 00:09:12.471 --> 00:09:13.702 Mexico is off limits, 211 00:09:13.831 --> 00:09:16.192 but it's where the escalation is slowly moving. 212 00:09:16.431 --> 00:09:17.471 On the larger level, 213 00:09:17.551 --> 00:09:21.231 what we're seeing is both the cartels and US special operations 214 00:09:21.390 --> 00:09:23.950 are putting their boots on the ground across Latin America, 215 00:09:24.130 --> 00:09:27.330 but instead of working in places like Venezuela, 216 00:09:27.551 --> 00:09:28.101 Guatemala, 217 00:09:28.111 --> 00:09:28.750 as we'll see, 218 00:09:28.861 --> 00:09:30.221 it's just growing and growing, 219 00:09:30.270 --> 00:09:32.031 it's a sign of major escalation. 220 00:09:32.260 --> 00:09:33.221 But why Ecuador? 221 00:09:33.301 --> 00:09:37.370 Ecuador is fast becoming the central battleground of the cartel in the US military, 222 00:09:37.630 --> 00:09:39.370 because it sits at the exact point 223 00:09:39.671 --> 00:09:41.931 where cocaine from Colombia and Peru 224 00:09:42.221 --> 00:09:45.471 meets the Pacific shipping system that carries it north. 225 00:09:45.669 --> 00:09:46.650 Toward Mexico, 226 00:09:46.950 --> 00:09:47.770 toward America, 227 00:09:48.109 --> 00:09:48.979 toward Europe. 228 00:09:49.109 --> 00:09:50.070 According to the FBI, 229 00:09:50.179 --> 00:09:54.380 70% of the world's cocaine now ships through Ecuadorian ports. 230 00:09:54.580 --> 00:09:57.549 Ecuador won the worst possible geographic lottery, 231 00:09:57.669 --> 00:10:00.270 having two neighbors next to them making cocaine all day, 232 00:10:00.390 --> 00:10:01.619 worse than my neighbor Carl. 233 00:10:01.859 --> 00:10:04.859 What that means though is whoever controls Ecuador's ports, 234 00:10:05.109 --> 00:10:06.030 their fishing fleets, 235 00:10:06.140 --> 00:10:07.340 their dockside warehouses, 236 00:10:07.380 --> 00:10:10.169 and whoever has corrupt access to that network, 237 00:10:10.390 --> 00:10:14.750 gets leverage over one of the most valuable maritime junctions in the. 238 00:10:14.869 --> 00:10:17.948 Entire world when it comes to cocaine supply chain. 239 00:10:18.309 --> 00:10:22.539 That is why Mexican cartels have spent years fighting through local proxies. 240 00:10:22.758 --> 00:10:26.229 The United States has reached the same conclusion from the other direction, 241 00:10:26.549 --> 00:10:29.708 increasing their intelligence and military cooperation here 242 00:10:29.708 --> 00:10:32.629 because disrupting that network in Ecuador can hit 243 00:10:32.629 --> 00:10:35.278 cocaine flows before it's even able to scatter 244 00:10:35.278 --> 00:10:37.189 to dozens of different routes up north. 245 00:10:37.309 --> 00:10:40.869 So Ecuador has become this strange foreign battlefield where both 246 00:10:40.869 --> 00:10:44.028 sides can escalate more aggressively than they currently are. 247 00:10:44.187 --> 00:10:45.947 Allowed to inside Mexico itself. 248 00:10:46.028 --> 00:10:48.268 The cartels are moving closer to the source 249 00:10:48.268 --> 00:10:50.947 while Washington is moving closer to the cartels. 250 00:10:51.057 --> 00:10:52.908 But what's weird is we know that some of the 251 00:10:52.908 --> 00:10:56.028 boots on the ground in Ecuador are CIA boots, 252 00:10:56.187 --> 00:10:57.708 because according to the Washington Post, 253 00:10:57.788 --> 00:11:00.908 the CIA has already opened up a covert front 254 00:11:00.908 --> 00:11:03.297 near Ecuador that you probably have never heard about. 255 00:11:03.507 --> 00:11:07.788 And the deeper we look at what happened to several fishing boats near the Galapagos, 256 00:11:07.908 --> 00:11:09.288 the more you have to ask, 257 00:11:09.427 --> 00:11:11.778 what exactly was the CIA targeting. 258 00:11:11.867 --> 00:11:13.348 The Post reported in August that. 259 00:11:13.427 --> 00:11:17.617 Several mysterious attacks on fishing boats near the Galapagos were carried 260 00:11:17.617 --> 00:11:22.327 out under a presidentially authorized secret CIA covert action program, 261 00:11:22.627 --> 00:11:25.387 separate from the Pentagon's public boat strike 262 00:11:25.387 --> 00:11:26.786 campaign that you're probably aware of. 263 00:11:26.906 --> 00:11:29.856 It's the I want secret Middle Eastern drone strike campaigns. 264 00:11:29.906 --> 00:11:31.997 We already have drone strike campaigns at home. 265 00:11:32.507 --> 00:11:34.906 The US has stepped up operations with Ecuador, 266 00:11:35.017 --> 00:11:37.747 sinking 6 ships since August, 267 00:11:37.906 --> 00:11:40.447 which the US says were used to refuel 268 00:11:40.786 --> 00:11:42.586 speedboats transporting cocaine. 269 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:44.440 No evidence was provided, 270 00:11:44.479 --> 00:11:45.630 nor were arrests made, 271 00:11:45.640 --> 00:11:48.380 sparking allegations of human rights violations. 272 00:11:48.479 --> 00:11:50.400 What exposed the mission was the Fiorella, 273 00:11:50.469 --> 00:11:53.960 a 50-foot fishing boat that suddenly vanished on January 20th. 274 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:58.460 Fisherman Dimas Alvarez said that the crew had noticed drones flying overhead, 275 00:11:58.760 --> 00:12:00.500 and a plane circling beforehand, 276 00:12:00.690 --> 00:12:02.830 not something you want to see out in those waters. 277 00:12:03.030 --> 00:12:05.479 Flight data reviewed by the Post afterwards showed that 278 00:12:05.479 --> 00:12:08.700 an aircraft using the call sign Phoenix 701, 279 00:12:08.880 --> 00:12:10.270 was flying toward the boat at the time. 280 00:12:10.390 --> 00:12:11.280 Alvarez and another, 281 00:12:11.429 --> 00:12:13.669 Crewmen were away in a small skiff, 282 00:12:13.750 --> 00:12:16.750 setting fishing lines when they saw smoke on the horizon. 283 00:12:16.989 --> 00:12:18.500 The next morning they found debris, 284 00:12:18.669 --> 00:12:20.890 including what appeared to be the Fiorello's flag. 285 00:12:20.989 --> 00:12:22.690 The other eight men remained missing. 286 00:12:22.830 --> 00:12:25.070 That's when reporters started digging deeper into 287 00:12:25.070 --> 00:12:28.849 that mysterious call sign Phoenix 701 aircraft. 288 00:12:29.229 --> 00:12:31.789 Turned out that it was a Cessna modified with surveillance 289 00:12:31.789 --> 00:12:35.549 equipment operating from the Ilopango Airport in El Salvador, 290 00:12:35.650 --> 00:12:39.830 an airport that has very reassuringly has a historical distinction of serving. 291 00:12:40.130 --> 00:12:44.090 Previously as a hub for covert US backed operations supporting the Contras. 292 00:12:44.270 --> 00:12:45.099 Even stranger though, 293 00:12:45.140 --> 00:12:48.010 the registration number the aircraft was using didn't appear as 294 00:12:48.010 --> 00:12:52.090 in any active registration in any available FAA records, 295 00:12:52.340 --> 00:12:53.640 and the plot thickened from there. 296 00:12:53.809 --> 00:12:57.280 The number had been reserved by a company with no obvious website, 297 00:12:57.460 --> 00:13:01.520 whose listed address was a mailbox at a Virginia UPS store. 298 00:13:01.659 --> 00:13:03.250 Convenient to get to from Langley, 299 00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:03.929 I'm sure. 300 00:13:04.099 --> 00:13:06.900 This is all just very normal plain stuff I'm, 301 00:13:06.979 --> 00:13:07.260 I'm, 302 00:13:07.340 --> 00:13:07.919 I'm told. 303 00:13:08.549 --> 00:13:09.119 To see here. 304 00:13:09.289 --> 00:13:10.010 Then in March, 305 00:13:10.119 --> 00:13:10.869 it happened again. 306 00:13:11.010 --> 00:13:13.530 Reuters reported that Ecuador's coast guard 307 00:13:13.530 --> 00:13:15.890 searched this other fishing vessel's boat, 308 00:13:16.090 --> 00:13:17.239 and then a few hours later, 309 00:13:17.369 --> 00:13:19.469 crew members said nothing illegal was found, 310 00:13:19.809 --> 00:13:22.000 and later they heard a drone overhead and an 311 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:25.330 explosion near the galley set the ship on fire. 312 00:13:25.450 --> 00:13:29.289 The crew abandoned the ship and they headed toward a nearby blue and white boat, 313 00:13:29.609 --> 00:13:30.330 expecting to get help, 314 00:13:30.450 --> 00:13:31.289 but shockingly, 315 00:13:31.369 --> 00:13:34.000 once they reached the boat out cold in the water, 316 00:13:34.210 --> 00:13:36.809 they said armed English-speaking men in military-style. 317 00:13:37.119 --> 00:13:38.960 Uniforms pointed weapons at them, 318 00:13:39.119 --> 00:13:40.820 threw hoods over their heads, 319 00:13:40.880 --> 00:13:41.869 and handcuffed them. 320 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:45.039 It's classic CIA covert operations stuff. 321 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:48.859 They were then eventually transferred to a Salvadoran Navy vessel. 322 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:51.559 He later told Reuters that the experience had shaken 323 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:53.690 him so badly he hadn't returned to sea. 324 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:55.119 Was he telling the truth, 325 00:13:55.390 --> 00:13:56.799 or was something else going on here? 326 00:13:56.919 --> 00:13:58.580 The CIA declined to comment, 327 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:03.510 and no US agency has publicly claimed responsibility for these specific attacks. 328 00:14:03.760 --> 00:14:04.760 Was it the cartel? 329 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:05.320 Was it? 330 00:14:05.539 --> 00:14:09.080 The post connected them to covert action programs through 331 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:11.539 a source with knowledge of the operation though. 332 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:15.030 While flight records independently showed that the call sign Phoenix 333 00:14:15.030 --> 00:14:19.010 701 frequently headed toward these ships around the incidents. 334 00:14:19.190 --> 00:14:21.109 It appears that US forces have intercepted 335 00:14:21.109 --> 00:14:23.130 and destroyed a series of these Ecuadorian 336 00:14:23.419 --> 00:14:26.309 fishing vessels that Washington DC claims were functioning 337 00:14:26.309 --> 00:14:29.710 as offshore refueling stations for narco speedboats, 338 00:14:29.750 --> 00:14:30.409 and of course, 339 00:14:30.590 --> 00:14:31.789 if that was the case, 340 00:14:32.070 --> 00:14:33.909 then those witnesses wouldn't admit it. 341 00:14:34.239 --> 00:14:36.799 At least 8 vessels have been hit so far though, 342 00:14:36.969 --> 00:14:40.739 and Reuters found that fishermen throughout the same Ecuadorian communities 343 00:14:41.010 --> 00:14:43.849 are often being extorted and recruited by criminal groups 344 00:14:43.849 --> 00:14:47.429 and sometimes threatened into carrying cocaine aboard their ships, 345 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.789 sometimes forced to pay gangs protection money just for permission to fish there. 346 00:14:51.969 --> 00:14:52.650 And to that point, 347 00:14:52.770 --> 00:14:55.479 we're seeing more strategic level assets moved in, 348 00:14:55.809 --> 00:14:58.830 because 6 days prior to that original Ecuador 349 00:14:58.830 --> 00:15:01.330 raid that took place with US Special Forces, 350 00:15:01.700 --> 00:15:03.289 CNN had an exclusive. 351 00:15:03.408 --> 00:15:05.028 They reported that the United States 352 00:15:05.169 --> 00:15:08.429 was sending MQ-9A Reaper attack drones 353 00:15:08.648 --> 00:15:09.588 from Africa 354 00:15:09.929 --> 00:15:10.729 to SouthTHCOM, 355 00:15:10.809 --> 00:15:12.039 repositioning them. 356 00:15:12.289 --> 00:15:12.568 However, 357 00:15:12.708 --> 00:15:13.568 Oceanet accounts, 358 00:15:13.638 --> 00:15:15.508 open-source intelligence accounts online 359 00:15:15.848 --> 00:15:17.189 who track these kind of things, 360 00:15:17.328 --> 00:15:18.929 had already followed the movements of this 361 00:15:18.929 --> 00:15:21.698 equipment that is publicly available from earlier, 362 00:15:21.768 --> 00:15:25.208 and they stated that it was a loan for 3 units and a 4th as 363 00:15:25.208 --> 00:15:29.049 an acquisition with an option for more of these drones to be sent in later. 364 00:15:29.088 --> 00:15:32.568 And what all this means is that this represents a major change in. 365 00:15:32.728 --> 00:15:33.168 Doctrine, 366 00:15:33.367 --> 00:15:35.567 specifically because of what a reaper drone can do. 367 00:15:35.648 --> 00:15:38.107 It can stay airborne for up to 27 hours, 368 00:15:38.288 --> 00:15:39.648 watch over highways, 369 00:15:39.728 --> 00:15:40.158 ports, 370 00:15:40.437 --> 00:15:42.557 or suspected jungle airstrips. 371 00:15:42.848 --> 00:15:43.408 While doing that, 372 00:15:43.487 --> 00:15:45.148 it can carry Hellfire missiles 373 00:15:45.367 --> 00:15:47.307 if the light turns green for action. 374 00:15:47.487 --> 00:15:49.768 A fleet of this size signals that the United States 375 00:15:49.768 --> 00:15:52.718 is expecting to do just that for multiple targets. 376 00:15:52.927 --> 00:15:56.458 This is a huge repositioning of firepower for America, 377 00:15:56.638 --> 00:15:58.357 and it represents this major shift. 378 00:15:58.487 --> 00:16:01.487 It signals that there's a massive change in priorities, 379 00:16:01.687 --> 00:16:01.848 meaning, 380 00:16:01.966 --> 00:16:04.067 That even though Africa Command is still fighting, 381 00:16:04.317 --> 00:16:06.956 the priority has shifted to the Western Hemisphere. 382 00:16:07.166 --> 00:16:09.586 It also has direct implications for the war in Iran, 383 00:16:09.956 --> 00:16:10.807 because the United States, 384 00:16:10.976 --> 00:16:13.036 since it started its war in Iran, 385 00:16:13.206 --> 00:16:15.966 has lost about 24 of these Reaper drones, 386 00:16:16.127 --> 00:16:18.986 which represents about 20% of their total inventory 387 00:16:19.127 --> 00:16:21.317 that they had prior to the combat operations. 388 00:16:21.526 --> 00:16:23.986 The cartel does not appear to have the same 389 00:16:23.986 --> 00:16:27.067 anti-air capabilities to shoot these kind of drones down, 390 00:16:27.567 --> 00:16:30.677 which makes the weapon possibly more suited for Latin America. 391 00:16:30.846 --> 00:16:31.127 These are. 392 00:16:31.286 --> 00:16:34.046 Losses that the US can't easily replace because 393 00:16:34.046 --> 00:16:36.036 the Reaper is no longer being manufactured. 394 00:16:36.085 --> 00:16:38.745 It's really old technology from the early 2000s. 395 00:16:38.926 --> 00:16:39.346 Instead, 396 00:16:39.486 --> 00:16:42.926 next-generation lower costs new types of disposable drones 397 00:16:42.926 --> 00:16:45.645 are expected to replace the aging Reaper drone. 398 00:16:45.885 --> 00:16:45.995 Now, 399 00:16:46.005 --> 00:16:48.286 Pentagon officials are already telling the Senate that 400 00:16:48.286 --> 00:16:50.556 the fleet has dropped to about 135 units, 401 00:16:50.606 --> 00:16:53.796 which is less than the 189 that the Air Force requires. 402 00:16:54.005 --> 00:16:57.226 This means that the US is making 3 theaters now 403 00:16:57.486 --> 00:16:59.765 share a shrinking amount of attack drones. 404 00:17:00.015 --> 00:17:00.366 It's a. 405 00:17:00.554 --> 00:17:03.164 Risky way to play musical chairs. 406 00:17:03.364 --> 00:17:06.723 The Reaper drone strikes and the AC-130 gunships that 407 00:17:06.723 --> 00:17:10.185 are allegedly annihilating narco trafficking boats in the Pacific 408 00:17:10.364 --> 00:17:12.344 have flown under the radar recently, 409 00:17:12.564 --> 00:17:15.395 but these efforts are actually only ramping up. 410 00:17:15.525 --> 00:17:18.265 At the New York Times reported that the US military had 411 00:17:18.604 --> 00:17:21.525 increased the number of armed MQ-9 Reaper drones and 412 00:17:21.525 --> 00:17:25.005 other fixed-wing attack aircraft operating from El Salvador. 413 00:17:25.084 --> 00:17:27.405 They're operating from that CSL airbase, 414 00:17:27.483 --> 00:17:28.385 the cooperative 415 00:17:28.885 --> 00:17:29.584 security location. 416 00:17:29.843 --> 00:17:32.104 At El Salvador's International Airport. 417 00:17:32.163 --> 00:17:34.703 I really can't imagine what it would be like if I saw 418 00:17:34.703 --> 00:17:37.953 attack drones taking off from the Newark International Airport anytime I, 419 00:17:38.124 --> 00:17:38.244 I, 420 00:17:38.343 --> 00:17:39.443 I left from somewhere from there. 421 00:17:39.514 --> 00:17:41.183 But SouthCO has used the 422 00:17:42.313 --> 00:17:45.234 Campela Airport for years for counter-narcotics surveillance, 423 00:17:45.473 --> 00:17:48.984 but what's changed recently is that it's evolved from surveillance 424 00:17:49.183 --> 00:17:51.154 to being this finding and killing hub. 425 00:17:51.354 --> 00:17:54.813 And all of this comes as the US is preparing to shape the region. 426 00:17:55.083 --> 00:17:58.963 What Washington DC is looking at as a major preparation in the Caribbean. 427 00:17:59.402 --> 00:18:03.353 And this is where the larger pattern becomes much easier to see, 428 00:18:03.522 --> 00:18:06.343 because while Washington DC is expanding its own 429 00:18:06.343 --> 00:18:08.883 footprint through places like Ecuador and El Salvador, 430 00:18:09.162 --> 00:18:10.892 the cartels are expanding into many of 431 00:18:10.892 --> 00:18:13.042 the same countries from the opposite direction. 432 00:18:13.123 --> 00:18:14.953 Just look at what's happening in Honduras, 433 00:18:15.233 --> 00:18:16.042 where in May, 434 00:18:16.083 --> 00:18:18.322 19 people were killed around Trulio, 435 00:18:18.402 --> 00:18:19.883 a city sitting along one of the 436 00:18:19.883 --> 00:18:23.083 major trafficking corridors that connect the Guatemala, 437 00:18:23.093 --> 00:18:23.983 Honduras border. 438 00:18:24.282 --> 00:18:26.243 And while police were investigating the massacre, 439 00:18:26.442 --> 00:18:28.133 another operation unfolded near. 440 00:18:28.531 --> 00:18:31.302 Where officers entered a house looking for suspects, 441 00:18:31.312 --> 00:18:34.161 and they immediately came under heavy fire from the cartel. 442 00:18:34.271 --> 00:18:36.322 5 Honduran police officers were killed 443 00:18:36.322 --> 00:18:38.722 and authorities later linked the suspects to 444 00:18:38.722 --> 00:18:43.501 the CJNG and the bodies of the officers were dismembered and burned. 445 00:18:43.712 --> 00:18:44.322 For Honduras, 446 00:18:44.401 --> 00:18:46.062 this was extraordinary 447 00:18:46.281 --> 00:18:46.661 because 448 00:18:46.921 --> 00:18:52.001 now you had major Mexican cartel allegedly operating violently enough inside 449 00:18:52.001 --> 00:18:55.942 the country to directly engage and kill an entire police team, 450 00:18:55.952 --> 00:18:57.521 and watch what happens next. 451 00:18:57.640 --> 00:18:59.980 Cause this is basically our entire episode 452 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:01.510 playing out on a smaller map. 453 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:06.831 Honduras flooded the corridor with about 500 police officers and 200 soldiers, 454 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:09.520 and the suspects fled west toward Guatemala, 455 00:19:09.811 --> 00:19:12.181 turning what started as a Honduran crime scene 456 00:19:12.441 --> 00:19:14.041 into a cross-border manhunt. 457 00:19:14.230 --> 00:19:14.990 Four days later, 458 00:19:15.220 --> 00:19:17.671 Guatemalan security forces encountered the group, 459 00:19:17.840 --> 00:19:18.990 a firefight broke out, 460 00:19:19.230 --> 00:19:20.470 2 suspects were wounded, 461 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:21.860 and additional suspects 462 00:19:22.120 --> 00:19:23.360 were eventually captured. 463 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:23.740 So 464 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:25.191 now take a step back here. 465 00:19:25.350 --> 00:19:25.850 In Ecuador, 466 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:26.801 we saw a Mexican. 467 00:19:26.920 --> 00:19:29.859 Cartel moving closer to the source of their cocaine supply 468 00:19:29.859 --> 00:19:32.859 while American special forces moved closer to the cartel, 469 00:19:33.040 --> 00:19:34.579 and here in Central America, 470 00:19:34.719 --> 00:19:35.780 we see the same 471 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:37.479 two expanding systems 472 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:38.520 starting to overlap. 473 00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:42.619 The CJNG is reaching farther into the trafficking corridor 474 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:46.540 while Honduras is bringing its military into domestic security. 475 00:19:46.719 --> 00:19:50.180 Guatemala is building a 2500 man jungle force 476 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:51.420 with American equipment, 477 00:19:51.430 --> 00:19:54.439 and US aircraft are operating out of El Salvador, 478 00:19:54.479 --> 00:19:56.079 and that gives us a much better. 479 00:19:56.318 --> 00:19:59.149 to understand what's changing in 2026. 480 00:19:59.438 --> 00:20:02.159 The battlefield is spreading outward from Mexico. 481 00:20:02.399 --> 00:20:05.428 You increasingly have Mexican cartel representatives, 482 00:20:05.718 --> 00:20:06.879 their logistics networks, 483 00:20:06.958 --> 00:20:08.259 and armed crews 484 00:20:08.399 --> 00:20:09.058 operating 485 00:20:09.198 --> 00:20:10.338 throughout the country, 486 00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:12.058 surrounding the trafficking routes, 487 00:20:12.279 --> 00:20:14.038 while these same governments are 488 00:20:14.038 --> 00:20:17.019 integrating more closely with American intelligence 489 00:20:17.318 --> 00:20:19.068 and special operations units. 490 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:22.958 And eventually those two expanding footprints just run into each other. 491 00:20:23.078 --> 00:20:25.359 Ecuador may be the first place where we. 492 00:20:25.478 --> 00:20:28.758 You can clearly see what this collision looks like 493 00:20:28.917 --> 00:20:32.998 when both sides decide that local proxies are no longer enough. 494 00:20:33.238 --> 00:20:35.897 And now that collision is reaching the actual 495 00:20:35.897 --> 00:20:38.537 US border itself because in late September, 496 00:20:38.878 --> 00:20:40.718 US Coast Guard personnel who were 497 00:20:40.718 --> 00:20:43.238 conducting an interdiction operation near Garseno, 498 00:20:43.348 --> 00:20:43.858 Texas, 499 00:20:43.998 --> 00:20:48.708 came under small arms fire from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande by cartel forces. 500 00:20:48.828 --> 00:20:51.677 Everyone was reportedly jealous that now the Coast Guard were the 501 00:20:51.677 --> 00:20:54.637 first ones to get into a firefight trying to kill cartel. 502 00:20:54.786 --> 00:20:56.357 Sicario's pretty hooa stuff. 503 00:20:56.707 --> 00:20:57.357 On its own though, 504 00:20:57.467 --> 00:20:59.876 that sounds like another really strange night 505 00:20:59.876 --> 00:21:01.876 along the border with too much tequila, 506 00:21:02.077 --> 00:21:03.516 but I think if you put it next to 507 00:21:03.516 --> 00:21:06.546 what American intelligence was saying only a year earlier, 508 00:21:06.756 --> 00:21:10.827 it becomes much more interesting because just in September 2025, 509 00:21:11.036 --> 00:21:14.296 the FBI released an assessment about cartel drones 510 00:21:14.437 --> 00:21:16.036 that were operating along the border. 511 00:21:16.116 --> 00:21:18.217 We know that they do this hundreds of times. 512 00:21:18.357 --> 00:21:19.136 At several times, 513 00:21:19.197 --> 00:21:22.036 Mexican organizations were already conducting hundreds 514 00:21:22.036 --> 00:21:23.577 of drone flights every day, 515 00:21:23.717 --> 00:21:23.876 mostly. 516 00:21:24.196 --> 00:21:26.916 Watching American law enforcement so that smugglers could 517 00:21:26.916 --> 00:21:29.005 just figure out when and where to cross. 518 00:21:29.355 --> 00:21:33.666 Some cartel drones were even penetrating as far as 30 miles into American airspace. 519 00:21:33.956 --> 00:21:35.755 But the interesting thing here is that 520 00:21:35.755 --> 00:21:38.395 the assessment made a very important prediction. 521 00:21:38.625 --> 00:21:41.095 It basically said that these organizations 522 00:21:41.276 --> 00:21:45.816 would probably continue avoiding violence against American authorities, 523 00:21:46.076 --> 00:21:48.066 because if they attacked US troops, 524 00:21:48.316 --> 00:21:51.406 it would bring exactly the kind of US scrutiny 525 00:21:51.635 --> 00:21:53.196 that could jeopardize their cross. 526 00:21:53.395 --> 00:21:54.214 Border business, 527 00:21:54.594 --> 00:21:58.125 the cartel hates when something is bad for business. 528 00:21:58.474 --> 00:22:00.714 Then buried inside that same assessment, 529 00:22:00.795 --> 00:22:02.954 intelligence analysts warned that a change 530 00:22:02.954 --> 00:22:06.655 in circumstances could alter the cartel's willingness 531 00:22:06.875 --> 00:22:10.535 to use violence against American authorities along the border. 532 00:22:10.714 --> 00:22:12.555 An internal border patrol warning 533 00:22:12.675 --> 00:22:14.435 that was obtained by News Nation, 534 00:22:14.444 --> 00:22:16.694 and it was based on FBI intelligence, 535 00:22:16.954 --> 00:22:19.114 said that the CJNG cartel, 536 00:22:19.275 --> 00:22:20.744 specifically the one that was in Ecuador, 537 00:22:21.035 --> 00:22:22.474 had started directing members. 538 00:22:22.593 --> 00:22:23.494 In Mexico 539 00:22:23.634 --> 00:22:27.504 to shoot at US Customs and Border Protection agents from 540 00:22:27.504 --> 00:22:29.823 across the border exactly like what we just saw, 541 00:22:29.994 --> 00:22:32.953 but what makes the warning genuinely the most bizarre, 542 00:22:33.004 --> 00:22:33.463 I think, 543 00:22:33.713 --> 00:22:38.034 is where those attacks were supposed to happen according to that intelligence. 544 00:22:38.313 --> 00:22:41.034 So the memo said that the CJNG cartel 545 00:22:41.034 --> 00:22:44.394 members had been instructed to carry out attacks 546 00:22:44.553 --> 00:22:46.053 in areas of Mexico 547 00:22:46.234 --> 00:22:48.453 that the CJNG itself 548 00:22:48.754 --> 00:22:49.963 did not control. 549 00:22:50.114 --> 00:22:51.333 In the San Diego region, 550 00:22:51.433 --> 00:22:51.754 much of the. 551 00:22:51.873 --> 00:22:53.692 Territory belonged to its rival, 552 00:22:53.912 --> 00:22:55.312 the Sinaloa cartel. 553 00:22:55.713 --> 00:22:56.052 So, 554 00:22:56.152 --> 00:22:59.103 think about that potential logic for a second there. 555 00:22:59.312 --> 00:23:00.973 If the intelligence was accurate, 556 00:23:01.353 --> 00:23:03.853 American military retaliation itself 557 00:23:03.993 --> 00:23:06.072 could become a weapon in the cartel war. 558 00:23:06.312 --> 00:23:09.792 You fire at an American agent from your rival's territory, 559 00:23:10.032 --> 00:23:10.892 and suddenly 560 00:23:11.072 --> 00:23:13.993 his smuggling corridor is crawling with Mexican troops, 561 00:23:14.113 --> 00:23:14.833 border patrol, 562 00:23:14.953 --> 00:23:16.312 and federal investigators. 563 00:23:16.672 --> 00:23:19.532 So the cartel's new strategy manual 564 00:23:19.833 --> 00:23:21.032 includes a brand new chapter. 565 00:23:21.232 --> 00:23:21.732 Called 566 00:23:21.932 --> 00:23:24.582 throw rocks at the bear from your neighbor's Carl's yard. 567 00:23:24.712 --> 00:23:26.891 It's actually a very old strategy that 568 00:23:27.062 --> 00:23:28.472 gangs in America have used. 569 00:23:28.592 --> 00:23:28.751 They, 570 00:23:28.871 --> 00:23:30.921 they use tip lines to drop a dime 571 00:23:31.182 --> 00:23:32.531 on rival 572 00:23:32.671 --> 00:23:33.192 gangs. 573 00:23:33.312 --> 00:23:33.552 It's, 574 00:23:33.631 --> 00:23:34.732 it's tried and true. 575 00:23:34.952 --> 00:23:36.901 And that might be what we're seeing with this firefight, 576 00:23:36.952 --> 00:23:39.732 an attempt to get US military retaliation 577 00:23:40.031 --> 00:23:41.411 against the rival cartel. 578 00:23:41.631 --> 00:23:41.791 I mean, 579 00:23:41.832 --> 00:23:44.202 the memo even warned that a cross-border 580 00:23:44.202 --> 00:23:47.212 attack would bring heavy American and Mexican scrutiny 581 00:23:47.541 --> 00:23:50.092 against whichever cartel appeared to control the area. 582 00:23:50.520 --> 00:23:55.031 US soldiers are being sent to one of the biggest US-Mexico border regions, 583 00:23:55.110 --> 00:23:57.110 the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. 584 00:23:57.390 --> 00:23:58.230 Days later, 585 00:23:58.311 --> 00:24:00.811 after the firefight with the Coast Guard, 586 00:24:01.071 --> 00:24:01.750 Northern Command, 587 00:24:01.791 --> 00:24:02.260 or NORTHCOM 588 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:05.831 started quickly repositioning hundreds of American 589 00:24:05.831 --> 00:24:08.051 ground troops into the Rio Grande Valley 590 00:24:08.230 --> 00:24:10.451 under Operation Unified Resolve 591 00:24:11.020 --> 00:24:13.110 during a legitimate helicopter air assault 592 00:24:13.110 --> 00:24:15.730 of like 500 troops in Chinook helicopters 593 00:24:15.870 --> 00:24:17.970 onto the islands on the border there, 594 00:24:18.390 --> 00:24:19.551 like they were invading. 595 00:24:20.410 --> 00:24:20.869 America, 596 00:24:21.160 --> 00:24:22.969 they were sent to increase patrols, 597 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:25.349 to reinforce some really important key areas, 598 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:28.489 and to expand monitoring along this key river. 599 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:29.920 On face value here, 600 00:24:29.979 --> 00:24:32.660 it looked like retaliation for the cartel, 601 00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:33.819 Coast Guard shooting. 602 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:38.660 And if Washington DC is already preparing for this kind of contact from Ecuador, 603 00:24:38.760 --> 00:24:40.290 all the way to the Rio Grande, 604 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:44.189 why is the US military simultaneously preparing 605 00:24:44.189 --> 00:24:45.880 something much larger in the Caribbean? 606 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:48.069 The day after the Ecuador raid, 607 00:24:48.425 --> 00:24:50.265 CBS published a story that alleged an 608 00:24:50.265 --> 00:24:53.864 internal army message showed Army Reserve headquarters asking 609 00:24:53.864 --> 00:24:56.494 its subordinate commands about six types of 610 00:24:56.494 --> 00:24:59.165 formations that would fall under Southern Command, 611 00:24:59.425 --> 00:25:03.255 units that would possibly be needed within 90 to 120 days. 612 00:25:03.385 --> 00:25:07.425 The list they were most concerned about was combat sustainment support battalions 613 00:25:07.625 --> 00:25:09.265 to handle things like transportation, 614 00:25:09.375 --> 00:25:09.775 fuel, 615 00:25:09.785 --> 00:25:10.584 and maintenance, 616 00:25:10.854 --> 00:25:12.214 and an engineering battalion, 617 00:25:12.224 --> 00:25:13.694 and an expeditionary command, 618 00:25:13.905 --> 00:25:16.584 all of whose job it is to run logistics across a. 619 00:25:17.040 --> 00:25:17.869 - w ide campaign 620 00:25:18.050 --> 00:25:20.729 because invading somewhere is mostly just about figuring 621 00:25:20.729 --> 00:25:22.880 out where everybody's diesel fuel comes from. 622 00:25:23.089 --> 00:25:24.969 The report states that the army wanted to 623 00:25:24.969 --> 00:25:26.880 know if its medical brigades were prepared. 624 00:25:27.089 --> 00:25:29.189 It's basically a forward surgical detachment 625 00:25:29.530 --> 00:25:32.420 that would perform emergency surgery close to the fighting 626 00:25:32.420 --> 00:25:35.349 and a military police brigade for security detention. 627 00:25:35.489 --> 00:25:35.739 So, 628 00:25:36.010 --> 00:25:39.109 the US officials never actually mentioned Cuba by name. 629 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:41.050 There aren't any deployment orders, 630 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:41.890 troop numbers, 631 00:25:42.050 --> 00:25:43.119 destinations or missions, 632 00:25:43.329 --> 00:25:44.010 anything like that, 633 00:25:44.130 --> 00:25:45.010 but Southern Command. 634 00:25:45.555 --> 00:25:48.875 Stated that this was standard continuous assessment 635 00:25:48.875 --> 00:25:50.994 of options in case of potential requirements. 636 00:25:51.094 --> 00:25:52.875 Experts are split on what it means though. 637 00:25:52.994 --> 00:25:53.515 For example, 638 00:25:53.594 --> 00:25:57.454 this being a mix of preparation for maybe humanitarian intervention or 639 00:25:57.614 --> 00:25:59.984 a way to ratchet up pressure on Cuba. 640 00:26:00.265 --> 00:26:02.594 Others read it as an opening stage for 641 00:26:02.594 --> 00:26:06.474 this medium to long-term operation with military intervention, 642 00:26:06.635 --> 00:26:07.354 peacekeeping, 643 00:26:07.515 --> 00:26:10.155 and humanitarian components built all into it. 644 00:26:10.255 --> 00:26:10.464 However, 645 00:26:10.515 --> 00:26:13.354 the US has been shaping this operation for months now. 646 00:26:13.459 --> 00:26:15.810 With US forces surveying the sea floor, 647 00:26:16.099 --> 00:26:17.300 maritime approaches, 648 00:26:17.459 --> 00:26:21.729 and CIA task force being deployed to Cuba to put pressure on them. 649 00:26:21.819 --> 00:26:22.979 Around the same time, 650 00:26:23.099 --> 00:26:25.260 units were put on heightened readiness and 651 00:26:25.260 --> 00:26:27.760 told to pre-stage personnel around the island. 652 00:26:28.020 --> 00:26:30.199 While these plans didn't end up going forward, 653 00:26:30.459 --> 00:26:34.020 an army-led assault was allegedly planned back in July, 654 00:26:34.180 --> 00:26:35.199 according to CBS, 655 00:26:35.459 --> 00:26:37.380 which was going to include a major 656 00:26:37.380 --> 00:26:39.920 airborne assault from the 101st Airborne Division. 657 00:26:40.060 --> 00:26:41.750 So what does this have to do with. 658 00:26:41.805 --> 00:26:43.935 The US hitting cartels in South America, 659 00:26:44.045 --> 00:26:44.165 well, 660 00:26:44.285 --> 00:26:47.405 Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out that answer when 661 00:26:47.405 --> 00:26:50.084 he announced a round of sanctions against Cuba in August. 662 00:26:50.165 --> 00:26:53.364 He described Cuba as a regime that spies on the United States, 663 00:26:53.484 --> 00:26:55.964 arms violent radicals throughout the region, 664 00:26:56.165 --> 00:26:59.165 and serves as this kind of base of operations for Russia, 665 00:26:59.364 --> 00:26:59.525 China, 666 00:26:59.535 --> 00:27:00.155 and Iran, 667 00:27:00.444 --> 00:27:01.824 just 90 miles 668 00:27:02.045 --> 00:27:02.984 from Florida. 669 00:27:03.285 --> 00:27:06.165 So the bigger metapoint we're trying to make here is that the 670 00:27:06.165 --> 00:27:10.045 United States is extremely involved in trying to crack down on anything. 671 00:27:10.199 --> 00:27:13.790 That they see as even a whiff of destabilization 672 00:27:13.790 --> 00:27:17.310 or someone supporting destabilization in the Western Hemisphere. 673 00:27:17.430 --> 00:27:18.670 And even more to that point, 674 00:27:18.829 --> 00:27:22.689 they're stopping doing plausible deniable missions to just straight up doing 675 00:27:22.689 --> 00:27:26.130 combat operations against anyone that they see as a problem. 676 00:27:26.239 --> 00:27:29.939 The question of how the US went from watching this pipeline of drugs from a 677 00:27:29.939 --> 00:27:35.030 distance to sending Marines and Green Berets remains for us to ponder on though. 678 00:27:35.189 --> 00:27:37.989 So take a look at the zoomed-out big picture behind the raid, 679 00:27:38.310 --> 00:27:41.175 because Just 2 days before the raid in Ecuador, 680 00:27:41.415 --> 00:27:42.834 before these ground raids started, 681 00:27:43.094 --> 00:27:46.125 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that just happened, 682 00:27:46.214 --> 00:27:49.405 the United States with 14 other governments in the Western Hemisphere, 683 00:27:49.734 --> 00:27:51.015 signed a joint statement, 684 00:27:51.025 --> 00:27:55.734 which was essentially just declaring open war on 24 different cartel groups, 685 00:27:55.824 --> 00:27:57.295 calling them terrorist organizations. 686 00:27:57.415 --> 00:27:58.415 So Daniel Noboa, 687 00:27:58.494 --> 00:27:59.694 the Ecuadorian president, 688 00:27:59.935 --> 00:28:01.324 told the United Nations that 689 00:28:01.535 --> 00:28:04.734 no country can fight an enemy that crosses borders, 690 00:28:04.814 --> 00:28:05.964 and they can't do it on their own. 691 00:28:06.055 --> 00:28:06.734 So 48 hours. 692 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:07.160 Later, 693 00:28:07.329 --> 00:28:09.040 that's when the American operators started 694 00:28:09.040 --> 00:28:11.619 kicking doors with Ecuador's security forces. 695 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:14.300 That's how high-level international relations 696 00:28:14.479 --> 00:28:18.369 and diplomacy start to connect with the tactical boots on the ground action. 697 00:28:18.459 --> 00:28:19.349 Because what we're seeing is, 698 00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:20.400 for the lack of a better term, 699 00:28:20.469 --> 00:28:22.619 a kind of NATO of Latin America. 700 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:24.969 There's this defense block that's starting to 701 00:28:24.969 --> 00:28:27.199 encompass most of the Western Hemisphere. 702 00:28:27.479 --> 00:28:31.099 And we can actually see where this is going from here because Ecuador 703 00:28:31.239 --> 00:28:35.079 is only the most aggressive version of something that Washington is. 704 00:28:35.185 --> 00:28:37.165 Now building across Latin America. 705 00:28:37.625 --> 00:28:39.785 My old squad leader used to always say, 706 00:28:39.824 --> 00:28:40.545 follow the money, 707 00:28:40.665 --> 00:28:41.185 Cappy, 708 00:28:41.454 --> 00:28:42.694 and when you follow the money, 709 00:28:42.785 --> 00:28:44.604 here it tells the same story. 710 00:28:44.824 --> 00:28:46.064 Because just in September, 711 00:28:46.104 --> 00:28:48.204 the State Department notified Congress that 712 00:28:48.305 --> 00:28:52.785 it's gonna redirect over $500 million in foreign military financing 713 00:28:53.104 --> 00:28:54.824 away from countries like Slovakia, 714 00:28:54.944 --> 00:28:56.185 North Macedonia, 715 00:28:56.464 --> 00:28:58.974 and Iraq and send it instead to Colombia, 716 00:28:59.055 --> 00:28:59.425 Ecuador, 717 00:28:59.505 --> 00:28:59.824 Peru, 718 00:28:59.864 --> 00:29:00.505 and Panama. 719 00:29:00.744 --> 00:29:03.425 The State Department said that the money would help combat. 720 00:29:03.560 --> 00:29:04.510 Narco-terrorism 721 00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:05.959 in our backyard. 722 00:29:06.209 --> 00:29:06.709 You just 723 00:29:06.930 --> 00:29:10.119 know that NRCO and SCO are punching air right now. 724 00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:14.479 But put it together and the strategic shift is just smacking you right in the teeth, 725 00:29:14.530 --> 00:29:14.959 I think. 726 00:29:15.050 --> 00:29:19.239 The military bureaucracy might use like 17 different acronyms to explain this, 727 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:22.689 but the map that I'm looking at says that American resources, 728 00:29:23.209 --> 00:29:27.849 American military power are now more and more being pulled toward Latin America. 729 00:29:28.050 --> 00:29:28.880 Take Guatemala, 730 00:29:28.890 --> 00:29:29.390 for instance. 731 00:29:29.650 --> 00:29:30.369 Earlier this year, 732 00:29:30.449 --> 00:29:31.819 the Guatemalan government. 733 00:29:31.994 --> 00:29:34.594 Asked the United States for expanded military 734 00:29:34.594 --> 00:29:38.214 cooperation against drug trafficking and help plan 735 00:29:38.944 --> 00:29:39.214 operations. 736 00:29:39.354 --> 00:29:39.875 In August, 737 00:29:39.994 --> 00:29:44.494 the Guatemalan military announced that 2500 troops in Pittan 738 00:29:44.494 --> 00:29:48.175 were already receiving new American weapons and tactical equipment 739 00:29:48.354 --> 00:29:52.474 as part of this modernization of its jungle Special Operations brigade. 740 00:29:52.675 --> 00:29:55.824 They're buying over 8000 M4 rifles from America, 741 00:29:56.035 --> 00:29:57.814 and we see this model is forming, 742 00:29:58.064 --> 00:30:00.114 American intelligence being married to local troops. 743 00:30:00.219 --> 00:30:00.660 Troops 744 00:30:00.780 --> 00:30:02.640 who already know every mile of the jungle. 745 00:30:02.819 --> 00:30:04.859 And sitting above all of this is something brand 746 00:30:04.859 --> 00:30:07.319 new called the Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere. 747 00:30:07.660 --> 00:30:10.540 SOUTHCOM created this specifically as the operational 748 00:30:10.540 --> 00:30:13.180 arm of the America's counter-cartel coalition, 749 00:30:13.250 --> 00:30:16.819 and its stated job is to synchronize capabilities across borders to 750 00:30:16.819 --> 00:30:21.199 apply what SOTHCOM calls systemic pressure against the entire criminal network. 751 00:30:21.339 --> 00:30:24.760 So Ecuador is where we can already see what happens when 752 00:30:24.760 --> 00:30:27.660 all of those pieces finally get switched on at once. 753 00:30:27.819 --> 00:30:28.500 What we're seeing. 754 00:30:28.564 --> 00:30:29.204 In Ecuador, 755 00:30:29.364 --> 00:30:33.425 maybe the first clear glimpse of what this new cartel war looks like 756 00:30:33.645 --> 00:30:36.564 when both sides stop relying on proxies and 757 00:30:36.564 --> 00:30:38.395 start putting their own people in the fight. 758 00:30:38.525 --> 00:30:41.944 The question I have now is where that collision happens next 759 00:30:42.165 --> 00:30:44.834 and how far Washington DC is willing to go 760 00:30:45.074 --> 00:30:47.344 once the cartels retaliate in some way. 761 00:30:47.564 --> 00:30:49.005 To learn more about all this, 762 00:30:49.165 --> 00:30:52.224 check out this episode here about how US Special Forces are 763 00:30:52.435 --> 00:30:54.555 on the ground in Colombia or this playlist 764 00:30:54.555 --> 00:30:56.844 here on cartel investigations that we've done.