4 narco-terrorists killed as US military blasts a drug vessel, Venezuela

The U.S. military said Saturday that four people were killed in a strike against a high-speed vessel suspected of involvement in drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea.

U.S. Southern Command said the operation was carried out on September 19 under the direction of Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere. According to the command, the vessel was traveling along an established drug-trafficking route, and intelligence indicated that it was actively involved in narcotics trafficking.

The military described those killed as alleged “narco-terrorists.” It released video showing what appeared to be a vessel followed by a flash, but did not provide independent evidence that drugs were being transported aboard the boat.

The strike is part of the Trump administration’s broader campaign against alleged drug-trafficking groups operating in Latin America and surrounding waters. The Associated Press reported that the latest incident brought the number of people killed in U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats to at least 231 across 69 operations since the campaign began nearly a year ago.

U.S. officials have defended the attacks as an effort to disrupt trafficking networks and prevent drugs from reaching the United States. Critics, however, have questioned the legal basis for the operations and the lack of publicly presented evidence identifying the vessels or those aboard them as drug traffickers.

The military’s statement did not identify the nationality of the vessel or the people killed, and it did not specify the precise location of the strike in the Caribbean.