US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US military has carried out its third fatal strike this month against an alleged drug smuggling vessel. In a social media post, Trump stated the strike killed three individuals and targeted a vessel “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narco-trafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”
Trump did not provide more precise details about the location of the strike. The Pentagon deferred questions about the strike to the White House, which did not respond to requests for clarity about the origins of the vessel.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans,” Trump said in the post.
Accompanying the announcement, Trump shared a video of the latest strike. The footage shows a vessel speeding through waters before it is struck by a pair of missiles from overhead, sinking in a fiery explosion. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung commented on X, “It was at this moment, the narcoterrorists knew they screwed up,” alongside the video.
Earlier this week, on Monday, Trump announced another US military strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, which also resulted in three deaths. This followed a September 2 strike on a drug-carrying speedboat that killed 11 people. The Trump administration has claimed the boats were operated by the Tren de Aragua gang, designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year.
The administration has justified these military actions as necessary escalations to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. However, several senators—both Democrats and Republicans—as well as human rights groups have questioned the legality of the strikes. They view the actions as potential overreach of executive authority, noting the military’s role in what some see as law enforcement activities.
To date, the Trump administration has yet to explain how the military assessed the boat’s cargo or determined the passengers’ alleged gang affiliation prior to the attacks. National security officials informed members of Congress that the first boat targeted was fired upon multiple times after it changed course and appeared to head back to shore.
These strikes come amid a buildup of US maritime forces in the Caribbean and mark a significant shift in America’s approach to combating drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere.
In Venezuela, some speculate the strikes may be part of a broader plan to try to topple President Nicolas Maduro, a notion Maduro himself has echoed. After the first strike, Maduro claimed that a video released by Trump was created using artificial intelligence and argued that a boat of that size could not venture into the high seas.
Earlier this week, Maduro condemned the US, accusing the Trump administration of using drug trafficking allegations as a pretext for a military operation intended “to intimidate and seek regime change” in Venezuela.
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