The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier moved into Latin American waters Tuesday as the US ramped up its military presence in the region while targeting drug traffickers operating out of Venezuela.

The Navy’s 4th Fleet did not specify the Ford’s location Tuesday, but did confirm the vessel was inside the US Southern Command’s (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility — which includes the waters off Central and South America and the Caribbean Sea.

The Ford and its escort of three guided-missile destroyers join eight warships, a nuclear submarine and F-35 aircraft already in the SOUTHCOM region.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the vessels’ presence would “bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere.”

“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations,” he added.

The aircraft carrier, which was commissioned in 2017, is the Navy’s newest and the world’s largest, with more than 5,000 sailors aboard.

President Trump ordered the Ford deployed to the SOUTHCOM region last month from the Middle East.

The move comes as the United Kingdom opted to no longer share intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in the strikes, CNN reported. 

It marks a clear schism between the UK and US as skepticism continues to grow over the Trump administration’s military campaign around Latin America.  

Prior to November, the UK had for years shared intelligence with the US to locate suspected smuggling boats in the region. 

That partnership turned south following America’s deadly strikes in the Caribbean, which UK officials fear is a violation of international law, sources with knowledge of the decision told CNN.  

Since Sept. 2, the US military has conducted 19 strikes against suspected drug transport vessels in both the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least 76 people the Pentagon claims are part of global trafficking gangs.

Venezuela’s left-wing authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, has alleged the US is undertaking a campaign to drive him from power.

In August, the Trump administration announced a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture so he can stand trial on drug trafficking and other charges.

In response to the US announcement of the Ford’s redeployment, Maduro warned that if Washington ever attempted regime change in Caracas, “millions of men and women with rifles would march across the country.”