Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned Friday that the U.S. struck a ship allegedly carrying medication within the Caribbean Sea, marking a minimum of the third time this week that the U.S. has attacked a vessel it says was concerned in drug trafficking.
“The vessel was identified by our intelligence to be concerned in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting alongside a identified narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote in a put up on X. “Six male narco-terrorists have been aboard the vessel in the course of the strike, which was performed in worldwide waters—and was the primary strike at evening. All six terrorists have been killed and no U.S. forces have been harmed on this strike.”
Hegseth mentioned that this vessel belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, which the Trump administration has named a delegated terrorist group, and was hit within the Caribbean.
Earlier this week, Hegseth mentioned he had launched a deadly strike in opposition to vessels allegedly carrying medication to the U.S. within the japanese Pacific Ocean. In that navy motion, the Protection Secretary mentioned, three male “narco-terrorists” have been killed.
In his put up saying that strike, he used related language to Friday’s put up, evaluating the alleged drug traffickers to the phobia group Al Qaeda.
President Donald Trump has been supportive of the navy strikes in current weeks, claiming that each boat that “we knock out” is saving American lives.
“Each boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives so each time you see a ship and you are feeling badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s tough;’ It’s tough, however for those who lose three folks and save 25,000 folks,” Trump mentioned in a press convention on the White Home final week.
Whereas fentanyl is accountable for tens of 1000’s of deaths yearly in the USA, it’s primarily smuggled in hard-to-detect quantities over the U.S.-Mexico border by land by authorized ports of entry, in keeping with consultants and authorities studies, together with the bipartisan Fee on Combating Artificial Opioid Trafficking.
Throughout a roundtable occasion with Cupboard secretaries on the White Home on Thursday, Trump and Hegseth every touted the success of the current strikes, with Hegseth promising extra.
“We’ll discover you, we are going to map your networks, we are going to hunt you down, and we are going to kill you,” Hegseth mentioned on the occasion. “And also you’ve seen that proof within the maritime area, whether or not it’s within the Caribbean or within the Pacific with the final two strikes. We all know precisely who these individuals are. We all know what networks they work with, what overseas terrorist organizations they’re part of; we all know the place they’re going, the place they originated from, what they’re carrying.”
The president additionally spoke in regards to the strikes on vessels on the occasion, explaining why his administration isn’t simply capturing the alleged drug traffickers on board and seizing the product they’re carrying.
“However we’ve been capturing these boats for years, they usually get again into the system, they do it many times and once more, they usually don’t concern that, they haven’t any concern,” he instructed reporters.
Requested whether or not Trump would go to Congress to ask for a declaration of struggle to authorize the continued strikes in opposition to boats, the president declined to take action.
“Nicely, I don’t assume we’re going to essentially ask for a declaration of struggle,” he mentioned. “I feel we’re simply gonna kill folks which are bringing medication into our nation.”
“We’re going to kill them,” Trump added. “They’re going to be, like, lifeless.”
Cracking down on drug smuggling and lowering deaths from fentanyl overdoses was a key marketing campaign promise for Trump final 12 months.
He additionally promised to hold out mass deportations, starting with what he deemed “the worst of the worst” migrants within the U.S. illegally.
Earlier this month, his administration additionally claimed to be in an “armed battle” with drug cartels, which he has repeatedly claimed are accountable for 1000’s of deaths within the U.S. yearly.
