Venezuela pledged on Sunday to sharply boost troops in coastal states to tackle drug trafficking - a move that comes after the US ordered the deployment of an additional 10 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to carry out operations against drug cartels.

Axar.az informs. citing Reuters, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered more troops in the Guajira region of Zulia state and the Paraguana peninsula in Falcon, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said, adding that the area constituted “a drug trafficking route”.

The military’s presence on the island of Nueva Esparta and in the states of Sucre and Delta Amacuro will also be expanded. Some 25,000 troops are set to be deployed, up from the 10,000 which have been deployed in the states of Zulia and Tachira that border Colombia, he said.

“No one is going to come and do the work for us. No one is going to step on this land and do what we’re supposed to do,” Padrino said in a video uploaded to social media.

Tensions between Venezuela and the US have escalated in the wake of President Donald Trump’s new approach to fighting the war on illegal narcotics.