The United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) on Wednesday announced a new “lethal kinetic strike” on a drug-trafficking vessel as part of Operation Southern Spear killed four narco-terrorists.
SOUTHCOM shared footage of the strike on social media and informed that the military operation took place on December 17 at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
The struck vessel was operated by a “Designated Terrorist Organization” transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in Eastern Pacific international waters and was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”
“A total of four male narco-terrorists were killed, and no U.S. military forces were harmed,” SOUTHCOM wrote.
Wednesday’s military strike is the second military operation of its kind in the Eastern Pacific Ocean publicly disclosed by SOUTHCOM this week as part of Operation Southern Spear. Earlier this week, SOUTHCOM announced that it carried out military strikes against three different drug-trafficking vessels, killing eight narco-terrorists.
On December 4, SOUTHCOM announced another lethal kinetic strike against a drug-laden vessel, killing the four male narco-terrorists aboard.
Since September, the U.S. military has conducted at least 26 strikes against drug trafficking vessels operating in Eastern Pacific and Caribbean international waters. The ongoing military operations have so far reportedly resulted in at least 99 drug traffickers dead.
The U.S. military strikes against drug traffickers are part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to curb the flow of drugs entering the United States and harming its population. Wednesday’s military operation comes right as House Republicans rejected a pair of new Democratic-backed resolutions that sought to impose limits on President Trump’s use of military force against drug cartels and on Venezuela.
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“The legislation would have forced the Trump administration to seek authorization from Congress before continuing attacks against cartels that it deems to be terrorist organizations in the Western Hemisphere or launching an attack on Venezuela itself,” the Associated Press wrote.
Since the start of the ongoing military operations against drug traffickers, Venezuela’s socialist Maduro regime has repeatedly claimed over the past months that such operations are a “pretext” to stage an “invasion” of Venezuela, oust him from power, and “steal” the nation’s resources.
“It is simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense, and we have said so many times, and now everyone sees the truth. The truth has been revealed,” Maduro reportedly said during a Wednesday speech in Caracas in response to President Trump ordering a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela.
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“The aim in Venezuela is a regime change to impose a puppet government that wouldn’t last 47 hours, that would hand over the Constitution, sovereignty, and all the wealth, turning Venezuela into a colony. It will simply never happen,” he continued.
Maduro is actively wanted by U.S. authorities on multiple narco-terrorism charges and has an active $50 million bounty on information that can lead to his arrest and/or conviction.
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