DONALD Trump declared all-out war against drug-peddling cartels following his narco boat blitz which killed 11 gangsters en route to the US.
The president boasted his lethal strike would make fellow Venezuelan substance-smugglers think twice – and warned they would face a similar fate.
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A major navy buildup in the waters near Venezuela has also been ordered as part of the full-scale battle with Latin American cartels.
Trump said the drug-running boat was carrying “narco terrorists” from the Tren de Aragua gang – which Washington designates as a terror group backed by the country’s president Nicolas Maduro.
Dramatic footage showed the kinetic strike target and decimate the sneaking vessel in the Southern Caribbean on Tuesday.
The strike came after weeks of teetering escalation between Washington and Caracas.
Asked whether the action was legal or why the smugglers weren’t arrested, the Don said the attack sent an unmistakable message to gangs.
He said: “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people, and everybody fully understands that.
“Obviously, they wont be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people wont be doing it again.
“When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, Let’s not do this.”
Trump also said following the blitz: “And there’s more where that came from. There’s a lot of drugs pouring into our country.
“These came out of Venezuela, a lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. We took it out.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox & Friends that Maduro was running his country as a kingpin of a drug narco-state.
He said officials knew “exactly who was in that boat and exactly what they were doing”.
“President Trump is willing to go on offense in ways that others have not seen,” Hegseth vowed.
He declined to detail the circumstances of the strike.
In a stark warning, he added: “We’ve got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t, it won’t stop with just this strike.”
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that such operations will happen again.
He claimed previous attempts to interdict boats were feeble – adding that such efforts also failed to deter the rampant flow of drugs into the country.
Rubio said: “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.”
The White House is yet to release official evidence proving the boat was carrying Tren de Aragua members.
Trump announced that 11 members of the Tren de Aragua gang had been killed in his strike earlier this week on Truth Social – adding a video of the dramatic footage.
It showed a speedboat cutting through the water with a number of people on board before a devastating explosion tore it apart.
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Trump has deemed several gangs and drug cartels to be terrorist organisations, and has long threatened military action against them.
In February, he designated Tren de Aragua, as well as six groups in Mexico and MS-13 in El Salvador, as foreign terrorist organisations.
Last month, Washington ordered three US Navy missile destroyers and around 4,000 military personnel to the edge of Venezuela’s territorial waters, Reuters reported.
The USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and USS Sampson were all called in for the operation.
And earlier this month, a secret directive by Trump ordered the Pentagon to use military force against cartels, the New York Times reported.
Although Maduro has denied links to Tren de Aragua, Trump claims his Venezuelan counterpart supports the group and actively encourages drug smuggling.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is offering an eye-watering $50million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.
On top of this, $700million worth of assets with alleged links to Maduro were seized in August – including luxury goods and private jets.
In response to Trump’s buildup of naval forces, Caracas has hit back by mobilising over four million troops last month.
Maduro also accused the US of seeking regime change.
He declared: “In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela.”
After Trump sent intimidating warships to Venezuela the dictator moved 15,000 troops to the border with Colombia last week.
Trump has accused President Nicolas Maduro of “mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere”.
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