President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that U.S. forces had carried out a lethal maritime strike against narcotics traffickers tied to Venezuela, killing 11 alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang in international waters.
“Earlier this morning, on my orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump said in his Truth Social account. “TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolás Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.”
The president said that the strike occurred while “the terrorists were at sea in international waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America.”
The president’s post was accompanied by a black and white video apparently taken with night vision equipment of a fast boat traveling with a number of occupants before suddenly exploding and bursting into flames.
The video and the president’s remarks expanded on the comments he made earlier during a press conference, where he told reporters that U.S. forces had destroyed a drug-laden vessel coming out of Venezuela. At the time, he credited the military leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and framed the incident as part of a broader campaign against narcotics trafficking. “We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country—coming in for a long time. These came out of Venezuela, and [they’re] coming out very heavily,” Trump said.
The strike comes amid a major U.S. naval buildup in the southern Caribbean, where eight warships—including three amphibious assault ships, a nuclear-powered submarine and surveillance aircraft—have been deployed to disrupt cartel activity. The force includes about 4,500 sailors and Marines, among them a rapid-response expeditionary unit of 2,200 troops.
The San Antonio, Iwo Jima and Fort Lauderdale are stationed alongside three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers—the Sampson, Jason Dunham and Gravely—armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, advanced air defenses and anti-submarine weapons. Military officials say the combined strike group not only interdicts traffickers at sea but also provides the capacity to land Marines ashore, if ordered.
The Trump administration has increasingly folded its counter-narcotics strategy into its campaign to isolate the Venezuelan government. Earlier this year, the United States designated the Tren de Aragua and other cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, granting agencies expanded authority to freeze assets, disrupt financing and target leaders.
The U.S. has also labeled Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns—an alleged trafficking network involving Maduro and senior military officers—a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” entity. Prosecutors have indicted Maduro on conspiracy charges, accusing him of turning Venezuela into a narco-state, and the State Department has placed a $50 million bounty on his capture.
Maduro has rejected the U.S. allegations, calling them a pretext for regime change. In response to the latest naval deployments, he vowed to mobilize militias to defend Venezuela’s sovereignty, raising fears of a direct clash between U.S. forces and Venezuelan security units in the region.
The deadly strike marks one of the most aggressive U.S. military actions yet tied to the administration’s counter-cartel strategy—underscoring Washington’s willingness to treat Maduro’s criminal networks as battlefield adversaries.
The president did not provide details about the time or location of the attack.
In a brief statement issued via his X account, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the U.S. military had “conducted a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.”
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