When Americans die of fentanyl overdoses, they are victims of the very same networks that bankroll rockets fired at Israel. The cartels, Venezuela’s criminal regime, and Iran’s Hezbollah are not separate threats. They are partners in one sprawling enterprise that poisons American cities and wages war on the Jewish state.
Last week, the U.S. Navy deployed eight warships to the Caribbean, aiming to choke off drug cartel routes that pump cocaine and fentanyl into American neighborhoods. Officially, this was about fighting cartels. But Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, was quick to cry foul, accusing Washington of plotting regime change. His paranoia isn’t baseless. The Trump administration recently put a $50 million bounty on his head for his key role in the drug trade. Still, the real story here is not Maduro’s bluster—it is how Venezuela’s criminal regime has become an integral part of Iran’s global war machine.
For decades, Hezbollah—Tehran’s most dangerous proxy—has been embedded in the drug trade. This is not speculation. U.S. investigations have documented the vast cocaine pipelines that stretch from South America into American cities, with the profits funneled back to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Project Cassandra, a DEA initiative launched in 2008, revealed Hezbollah’s transformation from a regional militia into a global narco-terror empire. The group laundered billions through U.S. car dealerships, currency exchanges, and West African networks. Cars sold in Detroit ended up as cash in West Africa, which ended up as rockets fired into Israel.
Maduro’s Venezuela has only tightened the knot. According to a 2020 report by Joseph Humire, now at the U.S. Defense Department, Hezbollah and the Maduro regime turned Venezuela into a hub where organized crime and international terrorism merge. Lebanese and Syrian families inside Venezuela’s political apparatus oversee a steady flow of drugs and weapons, while Tehran props up Maduro with arms, training, and money. It is a perfect alliance of thugs and tyrants, united by profit and ideology.
Which brings us back to those U.S. warships. This is not only a battle to stop drugs from ravaging American neighborhoods. It is also a strike against Hezbollah’s financing. Every shipment of narcotics sold on America’s streets feeds the very same network that builds Hezbollah’s tunnels and stocks its arsenals. America’s war on drugs and Israel’s war against Iranian terror are not two separate struggles. They are the same war, fought on different fronts.
And that means one thing: when the U.S. Navy confronts cartels in the Caribbean, it is also confronting Israel’s enemies. Washington may not frame it that way, but the reality is inescapable. America’s fight for its own survival and Israel’s fight for hers are inseparably linked.
Rabbi Pesach Wolicki is the Executive Director of Israel365 Action.
