Trump says U.S. has struck another alleged drug boat from Venezuela

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the U.S. military has carried out another strike against a Venezuelan drug cartel vessel that had been on its way to the United States, the second such strike in recent weeks.

He said three men were killed in the strike and no U.S. personnel were injured, adding that it occurred in international waters.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the target had been "positively identified [as] extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists," adding that the cartels threaten U.S. national security, foreign policy and other interests.

The post included a nearly 30-second video, with marking "unclassified" on the top, which appeared to show a vessel on the water exploding and then on fire.

The White House has offered scant information about how the operations came together or the legal authorities under which they were carried out.

Trump provided no evidence for his assertion that the boat was carrying drugs — though he told reporters that U.S. authorities had obtained evidence.

"We have proof, all you have to do is look at the cargo that was ... spattered all over the ocean," Trump said in the Oval Office Monday afternoon, when asked about the steps authorities took to obtain proof of their allegations.

"Big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place."

The U.S. president also said "we have recorded proof and evidence," including knowledge of "what they had."

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The latest strike comes amid a large U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean. Five U.S. F-35 aircraft were seen landing in Puerto Rico on Saturday after the Trump administration ordered 10 of the stealth fighters to join the buildup in the region.

There are also at least seven U.S. warships in the region, along with one nuclear-powered submarine.

When speaking with reporters on Monday, Trump suggested operations could be carried out on land against suspected drug smugglers.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro points at a map of the Americas during a news conference in Caracas on Monday. He has said the U.S. is seeking 'regime change' in Venezuela. (Jesus Vargas/The Associated Press)

"When they come by land, we're going to be stopping them the same way we stopped the boats," Trump said. "But maybe by talking about it a little bit, it won't happen."

Earlier this month, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told sailors and marines on a warship off Puerto Rico that they were not deployed to the Caribbean for training but instead sent to the "front lines" of a critical counter-narcotics mission.

On Monday, Hegseth, in a post on X, suggested an expansive mission for the U.S. military against drug traffickers:

"We will track them, kill them, and dismantle their networks throughout our hemisphere — at the times and places of our choosing," Hegseth said.

Prior strike on alleged drug boat

The U.S. president on Sept. 2 announced a similar strike off Venezuela, also involving what he alleged was a drug-carrying vessel.

U.S. officials said that strike targeted Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Administration officials have tried to link the gang to the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro.

The Trump administration claimed self-defence as a legal justification for the first strike, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing the drug cartels "pose an immediate threat" to the nation.

The Associated Press and others have reported that the boat had turned around and was heading back to shore when it was struck. But Rubio on Monday said he didn't know if that's accurate.

"We can't live in a world where all of a sudden they do a U-turn, and so we can't touch them anymore," said Rubio.

Several senators, Democrats and some Republicans have indicated dissatisfaction with the administration's rationale and questioned the legality of the action. They view it as a potential overreach of executive authority in part by using the military for law enforcement purposes.

Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California said he's drafting a war powers resolution aimed at preventing U.S. troops from engaging in further strikes until formally authorized by Congress.

Schiff said he was concerned "these lawless killings are just putting us at risk" and could prompt another country to target U.S. forces without proper justification.

Brian Finucane, a former attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, has written in the wake of the strikes that "there is simply no credible argument that an armed conflict exists involving the United States and whoever was on that boat."

"Nor is there any credible argument that those on the boat presented an imminent threat of armed attack against the United States that could have triggered the initiation of an armed conflict," Finucane wrote in the law and policy journal blog Just Security. "With neither of these facts being present, we are left with the premeditated killing of human beings, not in armed conflict and not in self-defence."

Human rights groups have also raised concerns that the strikes flout international law.

"Let us be clear — this may be an extrajudicial execution, which is murder," said Daphne Eviatar, who directs Amnesty International USA's Security with Human Rights Program. "There is absolutely no legal justification for this military strike."

Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Monday added Venezuela's neighbour, Colombia, to a list of nations failing to co-operate in the drug war, the first time it has done so in almost 30 years.

President Gustavo Petro, who has said on several occasions that whisky kills more people than cocaine, lamented Trump's decision during a televised cabinet meeting Monday, saying Colombia was penalized after sacrificing the lives of "dozens of policemen, soldiers and regular citizens, trying to stop cocaine" from reaching the United States.

That co-operation, a rare U.S. foreign policy success in Latin America, started to unravel following the suspension a decade ago of aerial eradication of coca fields with glyphosate. It followed a Colombia high court ruling that determined the U.S.-funded program was potentially harmful to the environment and farmers.

Since then, cocaine production has skyrocketed.

Petro has criticized the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and its efforts to combat drug trafficking in Venezuela

"Under my administration, Colombia does not collaborate in assassinations," Petro said on Sept. 5 after the U.S. military carried out the first deadly strike on the vessel in the Caribbean.