The United States military has attacked three alleged drug boats in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean as the U.S. continues its crackdown on narcotics trade and enforces a blockade on illicit oil shipments from Venezuela.
Earlier this week, the Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations, the U.S. Southern Command said late on Tuesday.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the U.S. military added.
A total of 11 male narco terrorists were killed during these actions, 4 on the first vessel in the Eastern Pacific, 4 on the second vessel in the Eastern Pacific, and 3 on the third vessel in the Caribbean, the U.S. Southern Command said, noting that no U.S. military forces were harmed.
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Earlier this week, United States forces boarded a second oil tanker in a week in the Indian Ocean, claiming it was attempting to escape from what Washington has called a quarantine on tankers carrying sanctioned crude oil from Venezuela.
The seizure of the Panama-flagged Veronica III follows an earlier seizure of Aquila II, another tanker that the U.S. Department of War said had violated the tanker quarantine imposed by President Trump on Venezuelan oil exports.
“Overnight, U.S. forces conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction and boarding of the Veronica III without incident in the INDOPACOM area of responsibility,” the U.S. Ministry of War reported on X.
“The vessel tried to defy President Trump’s quarantine — hoping to slip away. We tracked it from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, closed the distance, and shut it down. No other nation has the reach, endurance, or will to do this,” the Pentagon went on to say.
“International waters are not sanctuary. By land, air, or sea, we will find you and deliver justice. The Department of War will deny illicit actors and their proxies freedom of movement in the maritime domain.”
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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