DRUG CARTELS have shifted their game plan in the face of United States military operations across the southern Caribbean.

With naval routes under constant surveillance, traffickers are increasingly utilising small aircraft to make mid-air drug drops from Colombia into Caribbean waters—a trend that intelligence sources believe is now becoming more frequent and sophisticated.

A high-ranking intelligence source familiar with the US military operations in the Caribbean told the Sunday Express last week, “The build-up of military vessels and the six lethal strikes to date have prompted a spike in the number of illegal air flights from Colombia to the Caribbean. We have seen unauthorised flights from Colombia that are bypassing Venezuela go from three to five flights in one morning to 20 illegal flights.”