As the U.S. continues its war against Venezuelan drug cartels, President Donald Trump has refused to rule out the possibility of military strikes in the communist-ridden country.
On Sept. 30, Trump declared a “non-international armed conflict” against drug smugglers.
Beginning in September, the Trump administration released footage of airstrikes against “narco-terrorist” drug smugglers aboard vessels.
The latest strike took place on Friday, War Department Secretary Pete Hegseth announced.
“Earlier this morning, on President Trump’s orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Hegseth said.
“The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics – headed to America to poison our people,” he added.
“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard 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!!!!” the secretary went on.
Hegseth then issued a bold warning to the cartels: stop, or you will pay the consequences.
The situation between the U.S. and Venezuela has been ongoing for months.
In August, footage was shared online of 7 U.S. warships, with over 4,500 troops, heading to the coast of Venezuela.
The director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Defense Concepts, Brian Clark, explained the massive show of force while speaking to Fox News in September, as Trending Politics reported.
“I expect these deployments to continue for months or more than a year, with new ships rotating in to replace those that need to return home for maintenance or crew rest,” Clark said.
In a massive development, Hegseth announced on Friday the creation of a new task force with one goal: to “crush” the drug cartels in the Caribbean Sea.
On the same day, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations (UN) released a post on X, detailing the Trump administration’s efforts.
“The Trump Administration is on the offensive against drug cartels and drug trafficking into the United States. President Trump has been very clear that he is going to use the full power of America, the full might of the United States, to take on and eradicate these drug cartels no matter where they’re operating from and no matter how long they have been able to act with impunity,” the account wrote.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), drug smuggling has taken the lives of over 1 million individuals in the U.S. since 1999.
ICE pointed out the exact reason that drug cartels carry out their heinous operations: “to make money.”
“They don’t care about the people using and addicted to drugs; instead, they profit from their victims’ dependency. The millions of dollars drug smugglers rake in by selling illegal drugs enriches the transnational criminal organizations responsible that produce and smuggle them into our country,” ICE said in a statement.
