Washington — The U.S. military on Tuesday struck a drug-carrying boat hailing from Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, as tensions spike between the Trump administration and the Venezuelan government.
President Trump announced the strike in an unrelated Tuesday afternoon Oval Office event, saying the military had “shot out” the boat “moments ago.” He said his team had been briefed on the strike by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The president later said on Truth Social that 11 people were killed in the strike, which he said targeted members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuela-based organized crime group that the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. He posted a video that appeared to show a military strike against a small boat.
“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Rubio posted on X that the military carried out a “lethal strike” in the southern Caribbean Sea. He said the “drug vessel” had departed Venezuela and “was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.” Rubio later told reporters he believed the drugs that were allegedly carried on the boat were probably headed toward Trinidad and Tobago or “some other country in the Caribbean.” A senior defense official also said the U.S. had conducted a “precision strike” against the vessel.
The strike came after the U.S. confirmed last month that the Navy would boost its presence near Venezuela, deploying three warships to the waters off the South American country as part of an anti-drug cartel mission. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called the ships an “extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat” and deployed military forces to the country’s coastline, vowing to defend against any possible U.S. attack.
The U.S. has not indicated it plans to strike Venezuela’s government.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro’s government — a longtime U.S. foe — of working with drug cartels and groups like Tren de Aragua to traffic narcotics to the United States, and of leading a Venezuela-based drug group called Cartel de los Soles. Maduro was charged with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking in U.S. federal court in 2020. Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled the reward for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.
Maduro has denied the allegations. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil called Bondi’s move “pathetic” and a “crude political propaganda operation.”
Mr. Trump directed the military to target drug cartels in Latin America last month, CBS News previously reported.