A U.S. military strike targeting suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean left several survivors Thursday, marking the first time a Trump-era counter-narcotics operation has resulted in known survivors.
According to Fox News, two to three individuals survived the attack on a semi-submerged vessel described as a “big drug boat” operating in international waters. A U.S. search and rescue helicopter was reportedly deployed to the scene following the strike. Reuters also confirmed reports of survivors, though few details have been released.
This was the fifth such strike under President Donald Trump’s renewed military campaign against what he calls “narcoterrorist organizations.” At least 27 suspected traffickers have been killed in previous operations, none of which reported any survivors until now.
Thursday’s action followed a separate U.S. strike earlier in the week. On Tuesday, Trump announced via Truth Social that a vessel affiliated with a designated terrorist organization had been destroyed off the coast of Venezuela. That strike killed six narcoterrorists.
“Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump wrote.
The president said intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics and operating along a known drug corridor tied to violent foreign gangs. “The strike was conducted in International Waters… No U.S. Forces were harmed,” Trump added.
The operation is part of an intensified crackdown on transnational criminal organizations. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently announced the creation of a specialized counter-narcotics task force. “The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold,” Hegseth said.
The Venezuelan government, under Nicolás Maduro, condemned the strikes, claiming the United States is targeting civilians and violating sovereignty. Trump has authorized CIA operations inside Venezuela and has accused Maduro of deliberately releasing criminals and flooding the U.S. with drugs.
“These are foreign terrorist organizations,” Trump told reporters last month. “And we are treating them as such — no different than al Qaeda.”
The Trump administration has formally designated violent gangs like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations and declared that the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with international drug cartels. Lawmakers have been briefed under this legal framework to justify the military operations without a formal declaration of war.
No names have been released regarding the survivors of Thursday’s strike, and U.S. officials have not disclosed whether any will be taken into custody or interrogated. The Pentagon has yet to release additional information.
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