THIS is the moment US forces bombed a third Venezuelan drug boat – killing three “narcoterrorists” in a fatal strike.
Donald Trump’s war with cartels flared up after he ordered the attack on the vessel, which US intelligence confirmed was trafficking drugs.
Donald Trump’s war with cartels flared up after he ordered the attack on the vessel[/caption]
Dramatic footage showed a small boat rocking around in choppy waters before it was targeted by a US missile.
A huge explosion then erupted, leaving the vessel up in flames.
Trump shared the video on his Truth Social account as he sent a direct warning to any drug traffickers.
He said the strike happened in international waters.
“On my Orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump said.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking illicit narcotics, and was transiting along a known narcotrafficking passage en route to poison Americans,” he wrote.
“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!!!”
The US Southern Command’s area of responsibility covers most of South America and the Caribbean.
It comes just days after US forces struck two other boats allegedly from Venezuela.
A total of 14 people were killed in the attack, which Trump said was against drug traffickers.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has condemned the strikes and said his country will defend itself against US “aggression”.
Trump and Maduro are locked in a bitter international feud after weeks of heated back-and-forth.
President Trump accused his Venezuelan counterpart of being complicit in “mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere”
He also slapped a $50million bounty on Maduro offered by Washington.
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro[/caption]
Maduro responded by saying he will never let Trump get away with his “threats of bombs, death, and blackmail”.
He also announced he is mobilising his nation’s military – claiming to have 2.5 million military personnel deployed to defend Venezuela.
President Maduro claimed: “Everyone knows that the story of drugs and drug trafficking is a plot.
“That’s the argument. They want regime change to seize the country’s wealth, to control the country’s oil reserves.”
Around 78,000 Americans died of drug overdoses between March 2024 to March 2025, according to provisional data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump has always claimed the figure is likely much higher and has vowed to prevent as many drug-related deaths as possible during his second term.
Trump’s war on drugs?
by Harvey Geh, Foreign News Reporter
DONALD Trump has launched his full-scale war on drugs – favouring missiles over law enforcement.
The first day of Trump’s second term kicked off with the designation of narcotraffickers as terrorists – giving him the right to kill them before they can reach American shores.
This is the argument he has used in the face of law experts warning that his decision to strike a suspected drug-smuggling boat on Tuesday was illegal.
Washington-watchers claim that the gangsters should have been arrested – but the White House says that law enforcement is ineffective.
Trump vowed after the blitz: “There’s more where that came from.”
The US President has long spoken of his desire to enact force to take on drug cartels, which he accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of actively backing.
Maduro has denied the allegations, and the last few months have seen teetering escalations deteriorate into a tense standoff.
The US has positioned naval destroyers and soldiers around Maduro’s waters, while the Venezuelan dictator has ordered mass mobilisation of troops.
