President Donald Trump’s strikes against drug cartels are only getting started, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio said on Wednesday that the Trump administration would no longer rely on stopping drug runners when they arrive on U.S. soil. Instead, the United States will take out cartel members before they reach the country to spread their “poison.”
“Interdiction doesn’t work because these drug cartels — what they do is they know they’re going to lose 2% of their cargo. They bake it into their economics,” Rubio said. “What will stop them is when you blow them up. You get rid of them.”
Rubio made the comments while speaking at a press conference in Mexico as he met with leaders to discuss “strengthening cooperation on illegal immigration and countering transnational crime and terrorism in our region.”
The Secretary of State added that before the United States launched a strike on drug smugglers with the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, U.S. intelligence determined that the drug boat was on its way to the United States.
“Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up, and it will happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now, I don’t know,” Rubio said. “But the point is, the president of the United States is going to wage war on narco terrorist organizations. This one was operating in international waters, heading toward the United States to flood our country with poison. And under President Trump, those days are over.”
BREAKING:
Rubio says interdiction drug cartel boats isn’t enough. What works is to blow them up.
He says the U.S. is now waging war on narco-terrorist organizations and will blow up more such boats ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/Zl4KHfTe18
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 3, 2025
Trump announced on Tuesday that the “U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.” The president also posted a video of the strike, which he said resulted in the deaths of 11 drug smugglers while no U.S. service members were harmed.
“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” Trump added.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 2, 2025
Last month, Trump ordered U.S. forces to be deployed to the Southern Caribbean Sea — near Venezuela — to take on the drug cartel. Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro accused the United States of “seeking a regime change” with its latest military movements. Maduro added that Trump’s decision marked “the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years.”
Maduro, a socialist who remained in power in an election that appeared to be rigged in his favor, has a $50 million bounty placed on him by the U.S. government, citing his ties to drug cartels.