President Trump is turning up the heat on Mexico, demanding a dramatic escalation in the war on drugs: putting American boots on the ground to hunt down cartel chemists. The White House is aggressively pushing the Mexican government to green–light joint military operations, U.S. officials told the New York Times. Their goal would be to allow U.S. forces to cross the border and directly dismantle the laboratories churning out fentanyl before it reaches American streets. The new strategy would require embedding American troops—specifically Special Ops or C.I.A. agents—directly within Mexican units to execute joint raids on drug production facilities, according to American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Times. Read more: US military advisers embed in Mexico as Trump threatens to deploy special forces [reveal-banner]