President Donald Trump announced Saturday that a U.S. military operation in the Caribbean this week destroyed a “very large drug-carrying submarine,” killing two suspected narco-terrorists and capturing two others.
Trump, who also ordered the release of video footage of the strike, said a posted to Truth Social that the vessel was carrying mostly “fentanyl and other narcotics” toward the U.S. on a “well-known narcotrafficking transit route.”
He claimed the interdiction prevented as many as 25,000 American overdose deaths. “No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Under my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,” he added.
Fox News previously reported that two survivors were rescued by the U.S. Navy following the strike and were being held aboard an American warship. Trump’s statement marked the first official confirmation of their identities and nationalities.
The incident was the sixth U.S. interdiction of a suspected drug-smuggling vessel since combat operations began in the Caribbean last month. The Pentagon has not publicly disclosed the name of the operation.
Trump first mentioned the strike publicly during a meeting Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.
“We attacked a submarine, and that was a drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs,” he told reporters.
