President Trump said the two survivors aboard the drug-carrying vessel that American forces bombed in the Caribbean will be returned to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.
A U.S. Navy ship took the duo into custody after the speedboat was struck on Thursday.
The president on Saturday said it was his “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 on social media, “U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics. There were four known narcoterrorists on board the vessel. Two of the terrorists were killed. At least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore.”
The president said the two survivors would be brought back to their countries “for detention and prosecution.”
“No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Under my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea,” he said.
Thursday’s strike was at least the sixth strike since September of suspected drug-carrying boats in the waters near Venezuela.
And it was the first boat bombing that left survivors.
Some have questioned the legality of the strikes, but the White House argues the drugs coming in on such boats contribute to the epidemic of overdose deaths in the U.S.
Mr. Trump has accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of facilitating the drug trafficking, which Mr. Maduro has denied.
