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.”
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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.
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