United States Southern Command on Monday announced that Joint Task Force Southern Spear took out three narcotrafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific.
A total of eight “narco-terrorists” were killed in the strikes. “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” US SOUTHCOM said.
Video from the strikes shows massive explosions on each boat, turning them into burning piles of rubble.
WATCH:
US Southern Command said in a statement on X,
On Dec. 15, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking. A total of eight male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions—three in the first vessel, two in the second and three in the third.
Trump signed an executive order earlier on Monday to designate fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) and empower his administration to take on the “concentrated, large-scale terror attacks by organized adversaries.”
This will likely be used to justify the defense of America against drug cartels further, as the order directs the Secretary of War and Secretary of Homeland Security to “update all directives regarding the Armed Forces’ response to chemical incidents in the homeland to include the threat of illicit fentanyl.”
UPDATE: Trump Files $10 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against the BBC for Doctoring January 6 Speech
This comes as War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly plan to brief lawmakers this week on the strikes.
Per WENY News:
Secretaries Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio will brief Senators on Tuesday about the strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
The administration has said these strikes on alleged drug carrying boats are to protect the homeland from drugs crossing into the US. However, some Senators on both sides of the aisle have wanted to get more clarity on these strikes and the legal justification for it. So far, there’s been more than 20 publicly known strikes on alleged drug carrying boats, killing more than 80 people.
Recently, there were reports about the US issuing a second strike on survivors of an initial strike back in September. Some members are questioning if the administration killed people who no longer posed a threat.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D- NY), who sits on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, said last week the video should be made public.
This also comes after Democratic lawmakers demanded that US service members defy President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s orders, which they claim are illegal. The behavior of Democratic lawmakers has sparked outrage from many on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as veterans and experts on the topic.
A November 29 report from the Washington Post attempted to corroborate claims that the strikes were illegal, citing anonymous sources who said that Hegseth ordered troops to “kill everybody” on board the boats and ordered a double strike to kill survivors clinging to the wreckage of a ship in the Caribbean Sea. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) described the operations as “blatantly illegal,” adding, “Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder.”
Hegseth responded to the firestorm of “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting” on Friday, maintaining that the actions are lawful and align with the stated intention of the strikes to be “lethal, kinetic strikes.”
“Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict—and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command,” Hegseth said.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, despite these attacks, the US is continuing strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean, executing the 22nd strike on December 4, killing nearly 100 designated foreign terrorist narcotic traffickers as of early December.
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