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During President Trump’s second term, counternarcotics policy and the dismantling of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) have emerged as a major national security priority. At the start of his second term, President Trump designated several major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (The White House, 2025). This counterterrorism strategy enables the use of force, the freezing of assets, and a significant expansion of resources specifically allocated to combating FTOs (Muggah, 2025). According to a 2025 Department of Justice report, the administration is pursuing the “total elimination” of TCOs, emphasizing militarized, coalition-based approaches to neutralize their threat to US sovereignty. While this doctrine centers on safeguarding the homeland, recent research identified Africa and Europe as continents playing a pivotal role in the global narcotics trade. Specifically, reports indicate that the TCOs that operate in the Western Hemisphere are responsible for a large volume of drugs that transit through Africa before being shipped to Europe (Roudani, 2026). Consequently, this article argues that US security cooperation programs in Africa can play a critical role in disrupting the flow of narcotics from the Western Hemisphere to the East.
Although the Trump administration’s “Total Elimination” doctrine focuses on domestic security, the persistence of transnational narcotic trafficking remains a critical challenge that demands a strategic approach. While the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) identified West Africa as a primary transit corridor for Latin American cocaine as early as 2013, the continued growth of this drug flow suggests that legacy strategies have reached their limit, necessitating a shift in the approach. Recent data confirms the scale of this failure: according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) report (2026), approximately one-third of Europe’s cocaine supply now transits through West Africa, originating almost entirely from TCOs operating in the Western Hemisphere. Furthermore, the 2025 Global Organized Crime Index identifies West Africa’s cocaine trade as the fastest-growing market in the region since 2019 (GI-TOC, 2025). In response to this challenge, the European Union (EU) and 18 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries formed the Alliance for Citizen Security. This “soft-power” approach utilizes shared resources, such as surveillance and data, to close jurisdictional gaps and strengthen the judicial resilience of transit states (European External Action Service, 2026). However, as the eastward flow of narcotics continues to accelerate, US security cooperation in Africa must evolve into a central foreign policy tool to move beyond surveillance and actively dismantle the financial and logistical infrastructures facilitating this global trade.
To shift from a soft-power framework to a hard-power approach that emphasizes the “total elimination” of TCOs, the United States must leverage a coalition-based strategy centered on African military leadership. Research into the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program demonstrates that the promotion of West African graduates into high-ranking command roles is “critical to creating conditions for the United States to benefit geopolitically” (Ejikeme, 2024). By placing these US-trained officers in assignments that defend African borders, the United States establishes mutually beneficial operational environments that facilitate the disruption of transatlantic trafficking networks. This strategic cooperation is further operationalized through programs such as the African Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership (AMLEP), which bridges the gap between African sovereignty and US hard-power objectives (United States Africa Command, 2018). Through AMLEP, the United States Coast Guard works with partner nations to conduct maritime law enforcement operations, building security capacity and improving the management of African maritime environments (United States Africa Command, n.d.). These joint efforts are substantial and designed to deliver measurable impact. For example, in 2022, a US-supported operation led to the seizure of nearly six tons of cocaine near Cabo Verde, worth more than $350 million (United States African Command, 2022). This operation marked one of the largest non-containerized, trans-oceanic drug seizures in recent history, further underscoring the value of US Security Cooperation in Africa.
Beyond maritime interdictions, the value of US security cooperation with African partners extends beyond joint operations and training; it directly benefits US homeland security. During the Obama administration, West Africa was identified as a transit hub for Southwest Asian heroin destined for the United States (National Security Council, n.d.). In response, the United States worked with African governments to counter this threat while promoting regional stability. Notably, the United States African Command (AFRICOM), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the State Department collaborated to help Ghana establish a specialized counterdrug unit. This unit worked with the DEA to investigate a Ghana-based trafficking organization smuggling heroin into the United States, resulting in multiple seizures and arrests (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, 2025). These efforts demonstrate that US security cooperation with Africa does more than reduce drug flows to Europe; it actively protects the homeland by dismantling criminal networks at their source.
The evolution of the global drug trade calls for a shift in national security strategy. As TCOs increasingly utilize Africa as a strategic transit hub for their narcotics trafficking, the success of the “Total Elimination” doctrine becomes contingent upon a strategic expansion of resource allocation to align existing security programs with this objective. By moving beyond the EU’s foundational soft-power framework, the United States can leverage established programs, such as IMET and AMLEP, to transform African partner forces into formidable barriers against TCOs. This integrated approach allows the US to sever maritime pipelines fueling global drug markets, while simultaneously securing the homeland and stabilizing the Western Hemisphere.
References
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