US President Donald Trump on Sunday confirmed that American forces struck and destroyed a “very large” drug-carrying submarine that was heading toward the United States. He said that at least 25,000 Americans would have died if the vessel had reached the shore.Trump also confirmed that the United States was sending two suspected drug traffickers back to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, after a military strike on their “drug-smuggling submarine” in the Caribbean that killed two others.The White House released a video of the strike, and also shared through Donald Trump’s Truth Social post. The footage clearly shows the attack on the vessel, with continuous fire as it moves through the water. Trump said, “It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route.” He added that the vessel was loaded with fentanyl and other drugs. “Two of the terrorists were killed. The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution.” Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed that the Colombian suspect had been repatriated. “We are glad he is alive and he will be prosecuted according to the law,” Petro said on X.The strike was part of what Trump described as a military campaign to choke the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States. Since September, at least six vessels, mostly speedboats, have been targeted by US strikes in the Caribbean, with Venezuela believed to be the origin of some of them.Washington has claimed that these strikes are delivering a decisive blow to drug traffickers, but it has not provided evidence that the 27 people killed so far were actually smugglers.Experts and rights groups have said that such summary strikes are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers.The US has not revealed where the submarine departed from. Semi-submersible vessels built in secret jungle shipyards have long been used to carry cocaine from South America, mainly Colombia, to Central America or Mexico, often through the Pacific Ocean.
