The Pentagon on Thursday night shared video footage of what was the 22nd strike on drug-trafficking vessels operating off the coast pf Venezuela since September. The latest strike comes as Democrat lawmakers have repeatedly accused the Trump Administration of “war crimes” over the strikes.
Prior to Thursday’s strike, U.S. forces had carried out 21 maritime strikes in the Caribbean, resulting in 83 confirmed deaths according to Pentagon figures and independent tracking. The operations have relied primarily on MQ-9 drones and naval assets to destroy high-speed vessels departing Venezuelan waters.
Thursday’s strike targeted a drug boat operating in the Eastern Pacific, the Pentagon announced in a press release.
“On Dec. 4, at the direction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” the Pentagon announced. “Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed.”