- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsett ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to be deployed to the US Southern Command to"strengthen US capabilities to detect, track and disrupt illegal actors and activities that threaten the security and prosperity of the United States - Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

- The US military has carried out its tenth raid on a suspected drug-smuggling ship - Hegsett said earlier Friday, blaming the Tren de Aragua gang for operating the ship and killing six people in the Caribbean Sea.

The pace of attacks has quickened in recent days, from one every few weeks when they first began, to three this week, killing a total of at least 43 people since September.

Two of the latest attacks were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding the area where the military has been launching attacks and shifting them to where much of the cocaine from the world's biggest producers is smuggled.