Video: US strikes drug-smuggling boat near Venezuela, 4 killed
Pete Hegseth said that the strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela.
US forces on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing four people. The Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on his social media informing that the strikes have been made on “narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organisations”
"Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike," which was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics. He also said this was based on intelligence that confirmed the narcotics in the vessel.
“Earlier this morning, on President Trump's orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organisations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation,” his post read.
Stating that the vessel was headed to "poison our people”, he said that the strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela.
“The people on board were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!” he added.
Earlier on Thursday, in a letter obtained by AFP, President Donald Trump declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and declared that the United States is now in an “armed conflict” with them. The Trump administration has deployed multiple military vessels to the Caribbean Sea in an effort to combat drug trafficking, amid rising tensions with Venezuela's leftist President Nicolás Maduro.
Last month, Trump said the U.S. military targeted another boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel.
Trump has justified taking military action by saying that these violent drug trafficking cartels pose a threat to US national security and foreign policy.
