Smashing the Cartels: The 22nd MEU’s Secret War in the Caribbean

0:00 Welcome back, everybody. We're back down to the south of the border with the Special Forces Unit, and we'll be looking at the twenty second MEU Secret War in the Caribbean. The MEU, the read Expeditionary Unit Special Ops Capable. And most people think about the US Marine Corps deployment cycle. They think about the Middle East, they think about the Pacific, they think about how zones thousands of miles across the ocean.

0:27 But there's a war happening right next door, right on our doorstep, in the Caribbean Sea, the Eastern Pacific and the transit zones of Central and South America. The guys fighting it aren't just doing training exercises. They're conducting high stakes lethal introduction, intradiction operations against crime of some of the most ruthless, heavily funded criminal syndicates, yes, transnational criminal organizations cartels. A few days ago, in July first, the US Southern Command in the Marine Corps started releasing official statements in a summary video marking the end of a historic mission. The US Marines and sailors of the twenty second Marine Expeditionary Unit, the MEU Special Operations Capable just

1:08 return home to camp Lea June. They were gone for nearly ten months, from August twenty five all the way to June of twenty twenty six, ten months embarked to pall aboard the worships of the EOGMA Amphibious Ready Group, the EOGMA of the San Antonio and the Fort Lauderdale. Think about the grind of a ten month float. For almost a year, these operators live packed like sardines on an amphibious assault ship floating in the humid waters of the southcom Area of Responsibility. Why because the administration order the largest military build up in that region since the Cuban Missile crisis. They were the tip of the spear.

1:45 Some would call it for a massive, heavily classified mission known as Operation Southern Spear. If you've been following the news, you know Operation Southern Spears at the old school world on drugs. Well, the Coastguard pulls up and flashes a blue light. This is a hybred bottle of conc counter terrorism and maritime intradiction. The Department of Warshift of the rules.

2:05 When these cartels are designated as terrorists networks, the gloves come off. The twenty second MEU wasn't just out there monitoring radios. They were operationalizing a lethal mix of traditional amphibious dominance in cutting edge tech, including new robotic and autontonomous systems, to hut down NARCO vessels in the middle of the night. Think about what it looks like. It's a three hundred pitch black the sea is rough. Our intelligence assets spot a low profile smuggling vessel or rogue tanker cutting through international waters. The Marines launched from the deck of the Ebogemo or the Fort Lauderdale, and some of these operations are launching lethal kinetic strikes to eliminate the threat before these networks can even react, and others

2:47 it's a pre dawn fast rope maritime intradiction operations boarding heavily armed vessels in the middle of the open ocean with zero room forever. During this deployment, US forces under Southern Speed Year suddenly struck or intercepted dozens of small vessels and boarded sanctioned tankers. The twenty second MEU is a muscle standing behind that entire operation. But it wasn't just about pulling triggers and hunting smuggling boats to truly segure secure region. You have to build up the people living there. The twenty second MEU spent months training side by side with our regional partners. They were done, and they were down in Ecuador conducting heavy bilateral exercises with Ecuadorian Marines. They were up in Martinique for Exercise Tescolos.

3:33 They were building an assault landing zone in the dirt of Camp Santiago, Puerto Rico, pushing their HEMV twenty two ospreys in case one to thirties to the absolute limit. They even stood ready for immediate crisis response, providing security augmentations to US embassies like during high tension diplomatic visits to Karraka's Venezuela, and prepping for disaster relief when the Hemisphere needed stability. They did it all seamlessly. The elements they made up this force Battalion Landing Team three six come Combat Logistics Battalion twenty six. They prove that a marine expeditionary unit is still the most flexible, terrifying tool.

4:10 They return home in waves throughout June. Families waiting on the pier at Campbela June, holding signs, hugging their kids for the first time of a year. A lot of people in this country sleep soundly at night because they think the oceans protect us. They think the borders just take care of themselves. They don't realize that the only reason our homeland stays safe is because units like the twenty second e MEU are floating out there in the dark, staring down the wolves. So the Marines and sailors of the twenty second MEU welcome home. Job well done. It took the fight to the enemy in a theater. A lot of people try to ignore to everyone listening. Never forget the men and women who are deployed right now

4:46 keeping the perimeter secure. And Happy Birthday, America. You're two hundred and fifty years old, going strong.