The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, announced this Saturday that three “narco-terrorists” were killed in a new attack against a vessel allegedly dedicated to drug trafficking in Caribbean waters.
The person responsible for Defense of the United States announced through the social network X that, “by order of the President [Donald] Trump, o War Department carried out a lethal attack on another vessel drug trafficking operation, operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization [DTO, na sigla em inglês] not Caribbean”.
The vessel was known “to our intelligence services for its participation in the illicit narcotics smugglingwas traveling along a known drug trafficking route and transported narcotics”, added the official, who today traveled from Malaysia, where he participated in the ASEAN summit, to Vietnam.
According to Hegseth, “three narco-terrorists were on board” and were killed in the attack, which, according to the North American official, was carried out in international waters.
“No members of American forces were injured,” he added, reiterating that drug traffickers “are smuggling drugs” into the shores of the United States to “poison Americans in their own country, and they won’t succeed. The Department will treat them EXACTLY as we treat Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, locate them, seek them out, and eliminate them.”
The latest attack by US forces, which have been patrolling Caribbean waters for months, was carried out last Wednesday against another vessel that Washington associated with drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific, in an operation in which four people on board died.
Similar to this Saturday, Hegseth also reported at the time that the vessel was identified by intelligence services and that it “traveled along a known drug trafficking route and transported narcotics”.
“Four male narco-terrorists were on board the ship and died,” Hegseth then added.
With this new attack, there are 16 vessels destroyed by the United States in international waters, some in the Pacific, with the summary execution of their occupants, which the US Administration has repeatedly associated with drug trafficking activities, since the beginning of the Southern Command’s military campaign, which initially focused on the Caribbean, close to Venezuelan waters.
Last week, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated that he does not rule out attacks on land targets in Venezuela and Colombia, justifying them with the alleged fight against drug trafficking, adding that, if he carries out these maneuvers, he will notify Congress.