JUST IN: US Strikes 8th Drug Boat in Pacific Ocean
U.S. Conducts Eighth Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel in Pacific as Trump Administration Expands Campaign Against Cartels
The United States carried out its eighth strike against a drug-trafficking vessel in the Pacific Ocean west of South America, U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday night.
The operation marks a continuation of the Trump Administration’s expanding campaign against transnational narcotics networks. Since early September, seven similar strikes have targeted drug boats linked to Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang in the Caribbean Sea, east of Central America. Tuesday’s strike is the first reported on the Pacific side.
According to U.S. officials, two to three individuals aboard the vessel were killed in the latest attack. The administration has told Congress that the United States is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with major drug cartels, arguing that narcotics trafficking constitutes an “armed attack” because the substances smuggled into the country kill tens of thousands of Americans each year.
The latest strike follows last week’s announcement from the White House that U.S. forces destroyed a drug-carrying submarine in the Caribbean. Two men survived that operation—identified as nationals of Ecuador and Colombia—and were returned to their home countries for prosecution. One of the suspects, hospitalized in Colombia with brain trauma, remains under guard and will face charges, according to Colombian Interior Minister Armando Benedetti.
“He arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, and breathing with a ventilator,” Benedetti said in a statement.
President Trump said the actions were necessary to protect American lives, calling the intercepted submarine a major threat. “At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore,” Trump said, announcing the strike and confirming the deaths of two “narcoterrorist” operatives.
The strike is part of a broader U.S. offensive against the Venezuelan Maduro regime, which has included deployments of B-52 bombers, guided missile destroyers, F-35B fighter jets, P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft, a nuclear-powered submarine, and more than 6,000 troops. Trump also recently ordered the Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment—known as the “Night Stalkers”—into the region.
Speaking with reporters Friday, Trump said Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro had offered “everything” to the United States out of fear. “He doesn’t want to mess around with the United States,” Trump said.
At least 34 people have been killed in U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats since September 2, as Washington intensifies its campaign to dismantle cartel-linked trafficking routes across the Caribbean and Pacific.
This is a developing story.
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