Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will conduct more missions like the lethal military strike against a drug boat operated by a Venezuelan gang, as the administration continues its war on drugs shipments to the U.S.
Mr. Rubio, speaking Wednesday during a visit to Mexico, said the U.S. has established intelligence to interdict drug boats, but it hasn’t been working.
“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” he said.
He said similar operations will “happen again.”
“The point is the president of the United States is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations,” he said. “This one was operating in international waters, headed towards the United States to flood our country with poison, and under President Trump those days are over.”
Mr. Trump confirmed Tuesday that a strike was carried out against the drug-carrying boat operated by Tren de Aragua, the Venezuela-based gang that the U.S. has declared a terrorist organization. The president said 11 members of TdA were killed in the operation.
During an Oval Office meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki Wednesday, Mr. Trump said there were “massive amounts of drugs.”
He said the U.S. has tapes of the boat passengers speaking and could see the bags of drugs on the boat.
“They were hit, obviously they won’t be doing it again,” he said. “And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again when they see that tape.”
He called Venezuela a “bad actor” for sending gang members to the U.S.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the mission was a signal to other criminal gangs of what fate they could face if they try to bring drugs into the U.S.
“President Trump is willing to go on the offense in ways that others have not been,” Mr. Hegseth said on “Fox and Friends.” “You’re poisoning our people, we’ve got incredible assets, and they are gathering in the region.”
The strike resulted in the boat’s destruction and the deaths of the 11 on board.
“We knew exactly who was in the boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented, and that was Tren de Aragua,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Those 11 drug traffickers are no longer with us, sending a very clear signal that this is an activity that the United States is not going to tolerate in our hemisphere.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has not made public comments on the strike, but has made it clear that he’s not happy with the U.S.’s increased presence in the area as the Trump administration continues to crack down on drugs.
On Monday, he said he “would constitutionally declare a republic in arms” if U.S. forces attacked his country.
He has deployed troops along the Venezuelan coast and the border it shares with Colombia. The government has also called for enlistments into its civilian militia.
“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,” Mr. Maduro said.
He called the increased U.S. military presence in the region “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.