A cartel boat obliterated by the U.S. Navy as part of the Trump administration’s anti-cartel mission had over 2,000 pounds of cocaine on board, Dominican officials announced.
Dominican authorities seized 377 packages in total from the boat 80 nautical miles outside of Isla Beata, according to a CBS translation of an announcement from the Dominican Republic’s National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD). The boat was the third in a series of strikes from the Trump administration targeting vessels shipping narcotics to the U.S.
The DNCD released a video Sunday of agents offloading the vessel with the narcotics in question, with some of the packages labeled “MEN.”
“This is the first time in history that the United States and the Dominican Republic carry out a joint operation against narco-terrorism in the Caribbean,” the directorate said in a statement translated by CBS.
Venezuela has strongly objected to the strikes, deploying its own naval forces and readying a militia to potentially respond to the U.S. presence in the Caribbean. Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro has also made public threats to the U.S., saying that the deployment was an “outlandish, bizarre threat of a declining empire.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro also objected to the strikes Sept. 3, saying the people on board the vessels were “poor young people” and not the “big narcos.” Colombia is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, while also playing host to some of Latin America’s most vicious cartels and militias.
All three of the U.S. strikes so far have occurred in international waters.
“STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!” President Donald Trump said on Truth Social Friday.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “President Trump has long brought attention to the flow of illicit narcotics being trafficked into our country to kill Americans. He has taken historic action to confront this threat and protect our homeland, and it is working.”
“As always, President Trump was right about everything!” Kelly told DCNF.
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