Trump weighs plans to target cocaine facilities inside Venezuela, report says

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering plans to target drug smuggling routes and cocaine facilities on the ground in Venezuela as the Pentagon continues to amass military assets in the Caribbean, CNN reported, citing three U.S. officials.

Tensions rose further on Friday after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier strike group currently stationed in Europe to the Caribbean region. U.S. forces have been amassing in the region for the past several months as the administration continues military strikes against suspected drug boats in international waters. Trump has also authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.

However, according to the officials, Trump has not made the final decision on whether to go forward with the plans and hasn't ruled out diplomatic resolutions. This is despite the admission ending diplomatic talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in recent weeks.

According to the report, the operations would target facilities that manufacture cocaine, despite Venezuela not being a major producer of the drug.

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"There are plans on the table that the president is considering" regarding operations on targets inside Venezuela, one administration official told CNN, adding that "he hasn't ruled out diplomacy."

The second official, who was reportedly directly involved with some of the discussions, told the outlet that many proposals had been presented to Trump. A third official said the planning is happening across all sectors of the government, but the focus at the highest levels is currently going after the drugs inside Venezuela.

Trump, in recent weeks, has escalated his rhetoric regarding carrying out land strikes inside Venezuela, while the military continues strikes against the boats allegedly smuggling narcotics Caribbean. The strikes have so far targeted a total of 10 boats and killed at least 43 people since the U.S. began its campaign last month, according to Hegseth.

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Hegseth said earlier Friday that the South American gang, the Tren de Aragua gang, was operating the vessel during the most recent strike. The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks when they first began to three this week.

Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to "bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

Deploying an aircraft carrier is a major escalation of military power in a region that has already seen an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela.