New Joint Task Force Established to Lead SOUTHCOM Counter-Narcotics Operations


MIAMI, Fla. – U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced the establishment of a new Joint Task Force (JTF) under II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF) today to synchronize and augment counter-narcotics efforts across the Western Hemisphere.

The JTF will integrate the expeditionary capabilities of II MEF with Joint Force and U.S. interagency partners, represented by the Homeland Security Task Force. “Transnational criminal organizations threaten the security, prosperity, and health of our hemisphere,” said Adm. Alvin Holsey, Commander, SOUTHCOM. “By forming a JTF around II MEF headquarters, we enhance our ability to detect, disrupt, and dismantle illicit trafficking networks faster and at greater depth – together with our U.S. and partner-nation counterparts.”

Read more…
Source: U.S. Sothern Command


Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • A new device to help train sniffer dogs

    July 6, 2017

    When it comes to finding hidden explosives, the self-propelled detection system known as a sniffer dog has no equal. But sniffer dogs have to be trained, and that is a delicate process. In particular, the trace levels of explosive vapour involved are so low (because dogs’ noses are so sensitive) that accidental contamination of supposedly residue-free ...

  • Screeners at Minneapolis airport are reported to have a 94% failure rate

    July 5, 2017

    TWO more airports have joined Abu Dhabi in having a laptop ban lifted. On July 5th passengers flying from Dubai or Istanbul to America were told that they will once more be allowed to take large electronic devices into plane cabins, rather than having to stow them in the hold, which they have been required to ...

  • Unmanned Systems the New Weapon for Terrorists

    July 1, 2017

    JIDO fears that improvised threat devices may be the latest drone delivery packages. Long a tool of allies trying to foil improvised explosive devices, unmanned systems now may be entering the fray against friendly forces. Both terrorists and nation-states are striving to employ these systems, especially airborne platforms, to deploy new types of improvised threats against ...

  • Ceremony Recognizes EOD Warfighter Mission, History, Technology, Achievements, Family

    June 30, 2017

    Naval Surface Warfare Division Indian Head EOD Technology Division’s EOD Department and Expeditionary Exploitation Unit 1 celebrated the EOD mission, history, technology, achievements and family in a dedication ceremony and family day at Naval Support Facility Indian Head’s Stump Neck Annex, June 16. The event recognized both those who have provided – and those who continue ...

  • Large–Scale Vehicle–Borne Improvised Explosive Device Testing

    June 29, 2017

    In July of 2016, a refrigerator truck packed with explosives detonated next to a crowded apartment block in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood. The blast killed 323 people and was one of the worst Vehicle–Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED also known as car bombs) attacks ever recorded.  On May 30, 2017, a VBIED in a tanker truck ...

  • SPMAGTF-CR-AF EOD Marines and Spanish EOD Soldiers Train with Explosive Ordnance

    June 28, 2017

    Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Africa explosive ordnance disposal Marines conducted bilateral explosives training with EOD members of the Spanish Second Air Support Deployment Squadron (SEADA) at Morón Air Base, Spain, June 20, 2017. The single detonation that was demonstrated was approximately four pounds of Spanish dynamite, along with solid-based propellants, and Spanish C-4, placed ...

  • U.S. unveils enhanced airline security plan to avoid laptop ban

    June 28, 2017

    The United States on Wednesday unveiled enhanced security measures for flights to the country designed to prevent expanding an in-cabin ban on laptops, but an airline trade group said the changes might cause more disruptions. The measures, which European and U.S. officials said would begin taking effect within three weeks, could require additional time to screen ...

  • Fighting Boko Haram: newly trained squads receive equipments

    June 25, 2017

    The squad of 30 non commissioned officers is composed of six units that are highly skilled in the art. They have just returned from the United State’s of America’s military base in Jordan where they were trained for close to four months (3months, 2 weeks). One member of the squad, Sergent Kiylaka Elvis said they were trained ...

  • The Pentagon’s New Super Weapon Is Basically A Weaponized Meteor Strike

    June 7, 2017

    In the 1950s, Jerry Pournelle imagined the military equivalent of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Toiling away as a Boeing operations researcher in the afterglow of the Manhattan Project and the Soviet Union’s First Lightning nuclear test in 1949, the U.S. Army veteran envisioned a weapons system armed not with munitions and other chemical explosives, but ...

  • How Police Trace Cellphones in IEDs Like the Ones in NYC

    September 19, 2016

    A cellphone makes a convenient detonator for an improvised explosive device. But it’s also one of the most conveniently trackable devices under the eye of American law enforcement. Less than 48 hours after a bomb exploded in a dumpster on a streetcorner in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York—and another device a few blocks away failed ...

  • The £1bn of weapons flowing from Europe to Middle East

    July 27, 2016

    AEastern European countries have approved the discreet sale of more than €1bn of weapons in the past four years to Middle Eastern countries that are known to ship arms to Syria, an investigation has found. Thousands of assault rifles such as AK-47s, mortar shells, rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons and heavy machine guns are being routed ...

  • Saudi Arabia-led coalition has used UK-manufactured cluster bombs in Yemen – new evidence

    May 23, 2016

    Amnesty International has written to prime minister David Cameron and other senior ministers demanding a full Government inquiry into new evidence that Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces have used UK-manufactured cluster bombs – which may have killed and injured civilians, including children – in the conflict in Yemen. During recent field research in Sa’da, Hajjah, and Sanaa ...