Donald Trump proudly posted a dramatic video of US troops lethally bombing a drug boat killing 11 members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang
This is the shocking moment the US military lethally struck a drug boat run by a Venezuelan criminal cartel group.
Donald Trump revealed 11 “narcoterrorists” – part of the Tren de Aragua gang – were killed in the dramatic attack after the vessel was bombed in the southern Caribbean. The US President said the boat was carrying illegal narcotics bound for the US and was travelling in international waters when his troops launched their attack. The Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang has been designated as a Maduro-backed terror group by Washington and has been the focus of Trump’s war on drugs and international gangs in the US.
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Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said: “Over the last few minutes we just shot out a drug carrying boat, a lot of drugs on that boat.
“You’ll be seeing that, it just happened moments ago, our Great General and head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been so incredible, including what took place in Iran knocking out potential nuclear power, I think within a month they would have had it if we didn’t do what we did.
“And there’s more where that came from. There’s a lot of drugs pouring into our country. These came out of Venezuela, a lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. We took it out.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly chimed in after Trump and posted on X, saying: “The US military conducted a lethal strike… against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”
Trump later shared, on Truth Social, that no US military personnel were harmed during the lethal strike and said: “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”
The US leader posted grainy black and white footage aerial footage of a motor boat speeding across waters before it dramatically burst into a ball of flames. Venezuela’s communications minister, Freddy Ñáñez, claimed the video posted by Trump was created using artificial intelligence, but this has not been confirmed.
This comes as tensions between Trump and Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro intensifies between the enemies. Maduro has recently been raging over Trump’s increased military presence in the region – the Pentagon had deployed at least seven warships in the southern Caribbean.
Although the US does not recognised Maduro as the legitimate leader of the country, it has put out a £37million reward in recent weeks for information leading to the Venezuelan leaders arrest on drug trafficking charges.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi, last month, announced the reward and claimed Maduro was using “foreign terrorist organizations” to “bring deadly drugs and violence into our country”.
Maduro has also shared fighting words and threatened to “declare a republic in arms” if the country were to be invaded by US troops. He said: “In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela.”