THIS is the shocking moment Donald Trump blasts a drug-filled vessel and kills three “narco-terrorists”.
The strike comes just days after the US bombed a narco-smuggling submarine – as the country continues to wage war on drugs.
Footage posted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth shows the boat careering through the ocean.
A massive blast erupts from the water as a precision weapon strikes the vessel.
Moments later, it is engulfed in flames and a thick cloud of smoke before being totally incinerated.
Hegseth said Friday’s strike targeted a vessel linked to Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group – a prominent drug cartel he likened to the “Al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere”.
He said the vessel was travelling along a “known narco-trafficking route” and was carrying “substantial” amounts of drugs.
Three “narco-terrorists” aboard the ship were killed in the blast, he added.
Hegseth didn’t specify where the strike took place, but said the boat was operating in an area overseen by the Southern Command, which oversees US military operations in Latin America.
The operation comes just days after the US blasted a drug-smuggling submarine off the coast of Venezuela.
Trump celebrated the operation online and said it was a “great honour” to destroy the sub, which was apparently “loaded up with mostly fentanyl”.
Trump this week announced he would deploy 10,000 US troops, nuclear-capable bombers, and America’s most elite special operations unit — the “Night Stalkers” — to the waters off Venezuela.
He is taking the fight to the all-powerful drug cartels, who he claims are backed by Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro.
The Caribbean is now bracing for its most explosive showdown in decades as Maduro whips his country into a war footing and vows to repel any US attack.
In a dramatic escalation, three B-52 bombers — the same heavy bombers used in Iraq and Syria — flew for hours off Venezuela’s coast this week.
Meanwhile, MH-6 Little Birds and MH-60 Black Hawks from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, carried out low-level flights just 90 miles from Venezuelan territory.
The storied unit, famed for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, specialises in lighting-fast, low-altitude night missions and often carries Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Delta Force operators into battle.
Trump’s war on drugs
DONALD Trump has launched his full-scale war on drugs – favouring missiles over law enforcement.
The first day of Trump’s second term kicked off with the designation of narco-traffickers as terrorists – giving him the right to kill them before they can reach American shores.
This is the argument he has used in the face of law experts warning that his decision to strike a suspected drug-smuggling boat on Tuesday was illegal.
Washington-watchers claim that the gangsters should have been arrested – but the White House says that law enforcement is ineffective.
Trump vowed after the blitz: “There’s more where that came from.”
The US President has long spoken of his desire to use force to take on drug cartels, which he accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of actively backing.
Maduro has denied the allegations, and the last few months have seen teetering escalations deteriorate into a tense standoff.
The US has positioned naval destroyers and soldiers around Maduro’s waters, while the Venezuelan dictator has ordered mass mobilisation of troops.
Most of the American force is based in Puerto Rico, with about 2,200 Marines stationed on amphibious assault ships.
The Pentagon has also deployed F-35B stealth fighters, P-8 Poseidon spy planes, and MQ-9 Reaper drones to the region.
Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro has sent a stern response to Washington as he fumed the US wants to oust him and install a “puppet government”.
Maduro stared down Donald Trump’s declaration of war against the cartels, which the President insists are “poisoning” Americans with fentanyl and other drugs.
Trump has accused tyrannical Maduro of being in bed with the “terrorist” narco-cartels – and he has given himself the right to eliminate their members without trial.
Reports say the US is gearing up to seize ports and airfields in Venezuela.
Furious Maduro complained on Friday that America is perpetrating “an armed aggression to impose regime change” and “puppet governments”.
He previously said the US has “1,200 missiles pointed at our heads. They have a nuclear submarine.”
