A U.S. strike that destroyed a reported high-speed drug cartel boat in the Caribbean on Tuesday was part of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called a Trump administration strategy against international narcotics traffickers.
Mr. Hegseth said Wednesday on “Fox & Friends” that the mission sent a signal to criminal gangs like the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua that the U.S. is prepared to take them on.
“President Trump is willing to go on the offense in ways that others have not been,” Mr. Hegseth said. “You’re poisoning our people, we’ve got incredible assets and they are gathering in the region.”
The secretary said he couldn’t discuss details of the operation that blasted the boat and killed the 11 traffickers on board.
“We knew exactly who was in the boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented, and that was Tren de Aragua,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Those 11 drug traffickers are no longer with us, sending a very clear signal that this is an activity that the United States is not going to tolerate in our hemisphere.”
The U.S. is offering a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Mr. Hegseth called him “a kingpin of a drug narco state.”
“We know he’s involved in the types of drug running that has affected the American people directly,” he told the Fox hosts.
The attack on the speedboat shows that the Trump administration will take on dangerous adversaries using a clear demonstration of military might, Mr. Hegseth said.
“The precise application of American power can have incredible impacts and reshape dynamics around the world and in the region,” he said. “So Nicolas Maduro, as he considers whether or not he wants to continue to be a narco trafficker, has some decisions to make. That’s all I’ll say about that.”
