{"id":18500,"date":"2025-10-19T19:34:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=18500"},"modified":"2025-10-19T19:34:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:34:01","slug":"trump-confirms-strike-on-venezuelan-drug-sub-killed-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=18500","title":{"rendered":"Trump Confirms Strike on Venezuelan Drug Sub Killed Two"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n

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The president said the vessel was carrying \u201cmostly fentanyl and other illegal narcotics\u201d bound for the United States when it was targeted late Thursday night. Trump released a dramatic image showing the moment of impact and praised American forces for executing the mission without casualties, the Daily Mail\u00a0reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,\u201d Trump said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Two of the suspected traffickers died in the strike, while two others survived and were pulled from the water by U.S. Navy and Coast Guard helicopters. Trump said the survivors will be returned to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, to face detention and prosecution there.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo U.S. troops were injured in the operation,\u201d Trump said, calling it \u201ca message to every cartel and every dictator who enables them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strike took place late Thursday as the vessel traveled through international waters near Venezuela, according to defense officials.<\/p>\n

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During a cabinet meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said the submarine was carrying a \u201cmassive amount of drugs\u201d and dismissed suggestions that the targets were anything other than hostile operatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust so you understand, this was not an innocent group of people,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Intelligence analysts monitoring the operation determined the submarine was smuggling narcotics before the strike, officials told The New York Times. Video footage reportedly showed the two survivors floating among debris before being rescued and brought aboard a nearby ship equipped with medical facilities.<\/p>\n

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Two sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that the survivors were unharmed. It remains unclear whether they have ties to Venezuelan criminal organizations.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s decision to repatriate the survivors marks a shift from previous administrations, which often detained captured traffickers or combatants for prosecution in the U.S. federal system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a different kind of war,\u201d one senior administration official said. \u201cWe are using every tool available to dismantle these operations where they begin \u2014 not where they end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strike is the latest in a series of U.S. operations targeting Venezuelan narcotics networks. According to\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em>, elite U.S. Special Operations aviation forces recently flew within 90 miles of Venezuela\u2019s coast to conduct training missions in preparation for potential land operations against drug traffickers.<\/p>\n

Over the past two months, the U.S. military has destroyed five Venezuelan vessels carrying narcotics in the Caribbean, resulting in roughly 27 deaths, defense sources said.<\/p>\n

The escalation comes as part of Trump\u2019s broader crackdown on drug cartels across Latin America and the Caribbean. Last week, the Pentagon announced the deployment of more than 4,000 Marines and sailors to the region to support anti-smuggling and interdiction efforts.<\/p>\n

Trump has also authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct operations inside Venezuela, calling the move necessary to \u201cneutralize threats before they reach American shores.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Earlier this week, the president revealed on Truth Social that the Secretary of War ordered a \u201clethal kinetic strike\u201d on a narco-terrorist vessel with his direct approval. Trump said that military commentator Pete Hegseth had overseen the operation, which reportedly killed six traffickers on board.<\/p>\n

When asked Friday about Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s reaction to the U.S. military strikes, Trump didn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has offered everything, you\u2019re right,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou know why? Because he doesn\u2019t want to [expletive] around with the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s government has condemned previous U.S. operations in its waters as \u201cillegal\u201d and \u201chostile.\u201d In a recent statement, Foreign Minister Yv\u00e1n Gil warned that his country \u201cwill defend its sovereignty against any provocation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the criticism, Trump signaled that the campaign against Venezuelan drug networks is far from over. \u201cWe will not stop until every last narcoterrorist and every cartel partner is destroyed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Screenshot\/Getty Images This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion. President Donald Trump confirmed Friday that two suspected \u201cnarcoterrorists\u201d were killed and two others captured after a U.S. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18502,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500\/revisions\/18502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}