President Donald Trump confirmed Friday that two suspected \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d were killed and two others captured after a U.S. military strike destroyed a Venezuelan drug submarine in the Caribbean Sea. Trump said the vessel was carrying \u201cmostly fentanyl and other illegal narcotics\u201d bound for the United States and released an image of the strike, praising American forces for carrying out the mission without U.S. casualties. According to officials, the strike occurred late Thursday in international waters near Venezuela. Two suspected traffickers died in the attack; two survivors were pulled from the water by U.S. Navy and Coast Guard helicopters and received medical care aboard a nearby ship. Trump said the survivors will be repatriated to Ecuador and Colombia to face detention and prosecution there, a departure from prior U.S. practice of bringing captured traffickers into the U.S. federal justice system.<\/p>\n
Intelligence analysts monitoring the operation reportedly determined the submarine was smuggling narcotics before the strike, and video footage showed survivors floating among debris prior to rescue. Sources told The Washington Post<\/em> the rescued men were unharmed; it remains unclear whether they are linked to Venezuelan criminal organizations. Trump framed the operation as part of a broader campaign against drug cartels and \u201cnarcoterrorists,\u201d declaring the United States will not tolerate trafficking by land or sea. A senior administration official described the effort as using \u201cevery tool available to dismantle these operations where they begin \u2014 not where they end.\u201d<\/p>\n The strike follows other recent U.S. actions: over the past two months, U.S. forces have destroyed multiple Venezuelan vessels carrying narcotics, with defense sources reporting roughly 27 deaths, and the Pentagon has deployed more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to the region to support interdiction efforts. The administration has also authorized CIA operations inside Venezuela. Venezuela\u2019s government has condemned previous U.S. operations as illegal and vowed to defend its sovereignty. Trump said the campaign will continue until \u201cevery last narcoterrorist and every cartel partner is destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Donald Trump confirmed Friday that two suspected \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d were killed and two others captured after a U.S. military strike destroyed a Venezuelan drug submarine in the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n