Two men rescued after a U.S. military strike on a suspected drug-laden vessel in the Caribbean will be returned to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, for prosecution, President Donald Trump announced Saturday.
The strike, carried out Thursday, targeted a semi-submersible vessel believed to be transporting fentanyl and other narcotics along a well-known smuggling route toward the United States. It marked at least the sixth U.S. attack on similar vessels since early September.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large drug-carrying submarine that was navigating toward the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “U.S. intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”
According to Trump, two of the four people onboard were killed in the operation — one more than initially reported. The two survivors were rescued by U.S. forces and are now being transferred for detention and legal proceedings in their respective countries.
