US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that US military strikes on small boats near Venezuela have been so effective that “there are no boats” left in the area. He warned that traffickers will now be “forced to go by land. “
Speaking to Navy personnel at the naval base in Norfolk, Virginia, Trump praised the operations, which Washington says aim to stop drug shipments to the United States. “We’re stopping drugs at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” he said.
He added: “We’re so good at it that there are no boats. In fact, even fishing boats – nobody wants to go into the water anymore. Sorry to tell you that. We just can’t find any.”
Trump warned that the crackdown may extend to land routes if traffickers are forced to shift.
“They’re not coming in by sea any more, so now we’ll have to start looking at the land, because they’ll be forced to go by land. And let me tell you right now, that’s not going to work out well for them either,” he said.
Last month, the US military launched an extensive attack. The US navy carried out an airstrike in early September in the southern Caribbean on a boat from Venezuela, killing all 11 people on board. Trump released a video of the strike.
US officials say at least 21 people have been killed in the strikes so far. The White House claims that at least four boats have been destroyed, preventing drugs from reaching the United States. Video released by the Pentagon showed an open speedboat suddenly engulfed in smoke and flames.
Trump also mentioned another strike “last night,” although the last publicly announced Pentagon operation was on Friday, when four unidentified people described as “narco-terrorists” were killed on a small boat off Venezuela.
