Washington [US], September 17 (ANI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that the US military had sunk three suspected drug-smuggling vessels originating from Venezuela. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn before departing for a state visit to London, Trump said, “We knocked off, actually, three boats, not two, but you saw two. And the problem is there are very few boats out in the water. There’s not a lot of boats out in the water. I can’t imagine why.”
Trump also urged Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to “stop sending Tren de Aragua into the United States, stop sending drugs into the United States,” and “stop sending people from your prisons into our country.”
The announcement follows a September 3 US strike on a suspected drug vessel linked to the Venezuelan cartel ‘Tren de Aragua’, which reportedly killed 11 people. In a Truth Social post, Trump had stated, “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA was a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the strike as having targeted “a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organisation,” adding that it occurred in the “southern Caribbean.” The State Department had designated Tren de Aragua, originating in Venezuela, as a foreign terrorist organisation and specially designated global terrorists in February, according to CNN.
The US deployment included a large number of military assets around the Caribbean and Latin America, drawing strong criticism from Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. (ANI)
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