Before dawn on Thursday, September 24, 2026, about 50 uniformed personnel from U.S. Southern Command, along with DEA agents and a U.S. federal prosecutor, took part in raids in Ecuador alongside some 320 Ecuadorian police officers, targeting a network Ecuador says is linked to Mexico's Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Interior Minister John Reimberg said the operation “was conducted jointly with U.S. troops and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),” CBS News reported, and El Universo reported that he called it the first time Southern Command troops had directly taken part in raids in the country. Ecuador reported more than 30 arrests.
El Universo, which had reporters at the scene, described two U.S. soldiers entering a house in Samborondón with the U.S. prosecutor and her security team to identify the target, while U.S. officials helped collect and review evidence including phones and computers. Ecuadorian police made the arrests. There is no report of U.S. troops firing; the Wall Street Journal's headline said U.S. troops are “now fighting the drug war on the ground.” President Daniel Noboa wrote: “And today, under the direction of the National Police and with the support of the DEA and Southern Command, we dismantled a structure linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and arrested more than 30 people.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: “The Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C) in action.”
The escalation has been steady. In March the United States joined a partnered military operation in Ecuador; in the War Powers report it sent Congress on March 9, the administration wrote, “Although present for this partnered operation, United States ground forces did not come into contact with hostile forces,” according to Just Security. We found no War Powers report or public statement of legal authority for the September raids. In November 2025, about two-thirds of Ecuadorian voters rejected a referendum on allowing foreign military bases to return, Al Jazeera reported. Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America: “What we are seeing in Ecuador is unlike anything we've seen even during the Cold War.” For the wider campaign, see Trump's Undeclared Boat-Strike Campaign: At Least 231 Dead in 69 Strikes by September, and $4.7 Billion Spent by April.