The U.S. navy mentioned Monday that it carried out a strike on a ship accused of smuggling medicine within the Caribbean Sea, killing three males.
The boat was “transiting alongside recognized narco-trafficking routes within the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the U.S. Southern Command mentioned in a press release on X. “Three male narco-terrorists had been killed throughout this motion. No U.S. navy forces had been harmed.”
Southern Command’s submit on social media included a video of a stationary boat being destroyed in an explosion.
Monday’s strike comes lower than per week after 11 individuals accused of smuggling medicine had been killed in Latin American waters as a part of the Trump administration’s monthslong marketing campaign in opposition to alleged traffickers.
Because the administration started concentrating on these it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels final 12 months, a minimum of 148 individuals have been killed within the strikes.
Like a lot of the navy’s statements on the handfuls of recognized strikes, U.S. Southern Command mentioned it focused alleged drug traffickers alongside recognized smuggling routes however did not present additional particulars.
Most Democratic lawmakers have criticized the boat strikes, arguing the administration hasn’t offered sufficient proof that the boats had been trafficking medicine to the U.S. and has didn’t get authorization from Congress for the navy marketing campaign. A number of efforts by congressional Democrats to prohibit the boat strikes have fallen brief within the Home and Senate.
