The United States has reportedly executed its eighth strike against a drug trafficking vessel in the Pacific Ocean, West of South America.
Since September, the Trump Administration has launched seven additional attacks on drug boats affiliated with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua narcotrafficking gang, but unlike the latest strike, these were in the Carribean Sea, East of Central America.
Tuesday’s attack comes after the White House announced that a drug-carrying submarine was destroyed in the Caribbean.
It also comes as the United States ramps up its offensive against the Venezuelan Maduro Regime, reportedly with B-52 nuclear bombers, guided missile destroyers, F-35B fighter jets, P-8 Poseidon spy planes, a nuclear submarine, and 6,500 troops. Trump recently deployed the Army’s “Night Stalkers,” an elite unit used in counter-terrorism operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, in recent years.
While discussing this move with reporters on Friday, Trump said of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, he’s offered “everything” to the United States because he doesn’t want to f*ck around with the United States.”
“At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore,” Trump said in a statement announcing the strike and death of two “narcoterrorist” passengers. “The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution.”
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One of the two surviving terrorists is reportedly hospitalized in Colombia, suffering from brain trauma endured in the strike, according to Interior Minister Armando Benedetti.
Benedetti said he “arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, breathing with a ventilator.” He will face prosecution in Colombia.
Per CBS:
The U.S. struck another alleged drug vessel Tuesday night, this time on the Pacific side of South America, according to two U.S. officials.
In what is the eighth known U.S. attack on a boat since Sept. 2, two to three individuals aboard the vessel were killed. The other seven strikes targeted vessels in the Caribbean.
At least 34 people have been killed in U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats. The Trump administration has told Congress the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, and this constitutes an “armed attack.”
Two men survived a U.S. strike on a suspected drug-trafficking submersible vessel in the Caribbean last week, and the U.S. repatriatedthe men, one from Ecuador and one from Colombia. Ecuador released the man, identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño, after authorities said they had found no evidence that he had committed a crime.
This is a developing story.