The US military has destroyed a vessel involved in drug smuggling in international waters of the Pacific Ocean, according to the US Southern Command.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transporting drugs and was traveling along a known drug smuggling route in the eastern Pacific. Four narco-terrorists were on board and were killed“, the command said in a statement.
On December 3, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would soon begin carrying out strikes on land targets as part of the fight against drug cartels in Latin America.
The US accuses Venezuela of not being active in the fight against drug smuggling. The U.S. Navy has deployed a strike group of ships led by the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, a nuclear submarine, and more than 16,000 personnel to the Caribbean Sea.
Since September, U.S. forces have sunk at least 20 speedboats in the region, killing more than 80 people. After one of those strikes, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said the U.S. operation killed a Colombian fisherman, not a drug trafficker.