On Friday, President Trump revealed via Truth Social that he had given the order for a lethal strike against a vessel allegedly connected to a designated terrorist organization “conducting narco-trafficking” within the operational area of the U.S. Southern Command.
Trump’s post, which included a video showing the boat being struck and becoming engulfed in flames, stated that the strike was executed on a vessel intelligence confirmed to be , leaving three narco-terrorists dead.
Friday evening, Trump posted to his Truth Social account: “On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”
The post further quoted: “Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage enroute to poison Americans.”
He added that the strike occurred in , and no U.S. forces were harmed.
Trump stated: “The strike killed 3 male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel, which was in international waters. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!”
This announcement came just days after Trump had announced that the had conducted its second strike on Venezuelan cartels, as the administration’s crackdown persists.
On Monday, Trump posted to Truth Social: “This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”
Earlier in the current month, a U.S. military strike destroyed a Venezuelan drug boat in the southern Caribbean, resulting in the deaths of nearly a dozen suspected Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists.
In February, the Trump administration had also designated various drug cartel groups, including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations.