Trump announces US military struck drug-smuggling vessel from Venezuela

The US military launched a lethal strike Sept. 2 on a drug-smuggling vessel in the southern Caribbean shortly after it departed Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced at a White House press conference shortly after the event. The strike killed 11 crew members, but no US forces were harmed.

“We just over the last few minutes, literally, shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat,” Trump told reporters at the 2 p.m. conference. “A lot of drugs in that boat.” 

The President linked the strike to his administration’s broader efforts to curb narcotics trafficking, saying Venezuela continues to serve as a major route for drugs coming into the US. 

“We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time,” Trump said. “And these came out of Venezuela, and coming out very heavily from Venezuela.”

Trump later posted on Truth Social that the strike “resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action,” adding that no US forces were harmed in the strike.

“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America,” he wrote Sept. 2. “BEWARE!”

He also shared a black-and-white video clip that appeared to show a boat exploding in flames after a flash of light.

The President said that Tren de Aragua “is 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.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the strike in an X post minutes after Trump’s announcement.

Rubio described it as “a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”