U.S. Hits Drug Submarine, Another Boat As Trump Extends Threats To Colombia (Videos)

A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan on its way to another wartime mission. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson).

The United States military has struck a submarine and a boat which were allegedly sailing in the Caribbean with drugs on board as a part of its ongoing “counter narco-terror operation,” as President Donald Trump extended his threats to Colombia.

The strike on the “drug-carrying submarine” was announced on October 18 by Trump, who said that two men who survived had been repatriated to their home countries.

“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route. U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“There were four known narcoterrorists on board the vessel. Two of the terrorists were killed. At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore. The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution,” the U.S. president continued.

“Under my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,” he added.

The very next day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X that another strike hit a boat that was also carrying drugs.

“On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Hegseth said.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics. There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike,” he added.

Hegseth went on to describe the cartel as “the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere,” stressing that the U.S. military “will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”

The “counter narco-terror operation” in the Caribbean began in August when the U.S. military dispatched a large naval force with thousands of marines close to Venezuela, right after the the Trump administration doubled the reward for the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to $50 million on drug trafficking charges.

The latest strikes were the sixth and seventh to be carried out by the U.S. military since the start of the operation. In total, 32 people have been reportedly killed.

Early on October 19, Petro accused Trump of assassination and demanded answers over one of the first U.S. strikes in the Caribbean.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that a Colombian man was killed in a September 16 strike and identified him as Alejandro Carranza, a fisherman from the coastal town of Santa Marta. He said Carranza had no ties to drug trafficking and that his boat was malfunctioning when it was hit.

“U.S. government officials have committed murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” Petro wrote on X.

“The Colombian boat was adrift and had a distress signal on, with one engine up. We await explanations from the US government,” he added.

Petro said he had alerted the attorney general’s office and demanded that it act immediately to initiate legal proceedings internationally and in U.S. courts. He continued to post a flurry of messages about the killing.

“The United States has invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family, his children. This is Bolivar’s homeland, and they are murdering his children with bombs,” Petro wrote.

Last month, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to cooperate in the drug war, although at the time Washington issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered aid cuts.

However, after Petro’s latest accusations, Trump quickly announced that the U.S. will slash funding to Colombia in what appears to be a response.

Petro is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs” across Colombia, Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social, in which he repeatedly spelled it as “Columbia”.

He called Petro a “low rated and very unpopular” leader, warning that he “better close up” drug operations or the US “will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely”.

“The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc,” Trump added, saying that U.S. payments and subsidies to Colombia were a rip-off.

“AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE,” he concluded.

While Trump is clearly planning to escalate against Colombia, his main focus remains on Venezuela, with recent reports revealing a green light for CIA operations there and possible strikes on the country’s territories. The threat posed by the U.S. will likely encourage both countries and others in South America to cooperate more closely.

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