US launches new drug boat strike in the Caribbean, citing narcoterrorism

The U.S. military launched a lethal strike on Tuesday against an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean traveling through “established narco-trafficking routes” as outlined by Southern Command.

Four onboard the vessel were killed. It follows a Monday attack on an alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific in which two people were killed.

Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan ordered the Tuesday attack based on “confirmed intelligence” that “revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” read an update from Southcom.

It’s at least the 68th attack launched by alleged drug traffickers sailing in the Caribbean.

“We will hunt, disrupt, and defeat these narco-terrorist networks,” Francis said in a statement on the matter.

“SOUTHCOM is resolved to neutralizing cartel terror and violence throughout the region and into the U.S. homeland,” he added.

Lawmakers have questioned the intelligence behind the strikes and foreign leaders from Colombia and Venezuela have concluded citizens killed onboard the vessels were not gang members involved in the transnational sale of narcotics.

The Trump administration denied those claims and has declared several gangs ranging from Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and the Mexican cartel known as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel to the Sinaloa Cartel as terrorist organizations.

The White House says the designation gives them free reign to strike those discovered to be connected to the entities as they aim to fight narcoterrorism and address the fentanyl crisis.

The illicitly manufactured synthetic opioid causes tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually across the U.S.