The White House has said that 11 “narcoterrorists” were killed in a drone strike on a small vessel it claimed was carrying drugs from Venezuela to the US in the Caribbean Sea.
Sharing footage on his social media platform, Truth Social, President Donald Trump alleged that the shipment was connected to a drug cartel which he claimed was led by the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.
The night-vision aerial footage shows a fast-moving boat exploding in a ball of flames after being struck by a missile.
“Please let this serve as notice to anyone even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE,” Trump wrote in a post on Tuesday after the attack.
He claimed there were “a lot of drugs in that boat”, adding: “You’ll be seeing that, and you’ll be reading about that… These came out of Venezuela.”
The bombing marks a significant escalation in tensions between Washington and Caracas, and came a day after Maduro accused the US of attempting to carry out regime change in Venezuela. A number of US naval forces, apparently tasked with combating drug traffickers, have gathered in and around the southern Caribbean.
On Tuesday, Maduro warned he would respond in kind to any attack by warships patrolling near the Venezuelan coast, adding that he would declare a “republic in arms”, without elaborating on what this would involve.
“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defence of Venezuela,” he said.
The Trump administration said the mobilisation of its warships was part of a broader operation to thwart Latin American drug cartels, but officials in Caracas have questioned the US’s motives and suggested the deployment could be a pretext to a military invasion.
Trump later revealed further details of the attack on social media, saying the strike targeted a boat that was smuggling drugs out of Venezuela for the Tren de Aragua gang.
He described this gang as “a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, 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”.
He continued : “The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.
“The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No US Forces were harmed in this strike.”
It is the first known US military attack against alleged drug traffickers since the Trump administration began sending warships to the Caribbean last month.
Trump has long blamed Venezuela for a drug epidemic in the US, claiming Caracas is pouring narcotics into the US through illegal channels. Venezuela has denied the allegations.
