WASHINGTON — Tuesday’s lethal strike by US forces on Venezuelan narco-terrorists may not have been the last, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warning Wednesday that President Trump is “willing to go on the offense” to knock out dangerous cartels.
“We’re not going to allow this kind of activity. You’re poisoning our people,” Hegseth told “Fox & Friends.”
“We’ve got incredible assets, and they are gathering in the region,” he added. “And so you want to try to traffic drugs, it’s a new day — it’s a different day … this is an activity the United States is not going to tolerate in our hemisphere.”
Eleven members of the Caracas-linked terror group Tren de Aragua were killed while transporting drugs across the Caribbean Sea Tuesday, a blow President Trump said he hoped would serve as a deterrent.
“On the boat, you had massive amounts of drugs,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “We have tapes of them speaking. It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that. In fact, you see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the boat.
“And they were hit. Obviously they won’t be doing it again, and I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this,’” Trump went on.
“We have to protect our country, and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor.”
The military has released few details about the operation, but the Navy dispatched eight ships — including three guided-missile destroyers — to the region last month to counter drug smugglers.
Tuesday’s strike was the first by the military since Trump OK’d the use of military force against Latin American drug cartels classified as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this year.
Traditionally, the Coast Guard has carried out the task of tackling drug-trafficking at sea, using their law enforcement authorities to confiscate the contraband and arrest the cartel members.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has ratcheted up pressure on left-wing Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who the US considers to have stolen the past two presidential elections.
“They’ve been, as you know, they’ve been sending millions of people into our country,” Trump said Wednesday. “Many of them Tren de Aragua, some of the worst gangs — some of the worst people anywhere in the world in terms of gangs.”
Tuesday’s military action was partially meant to send a message to Maduro, whom Trump has long despised, sources close to the president say.
“The president understands the clear and present danger posed by narco-terrorists and their enablers,” one person with knowledge of the situation told The Post. “The president also doesn’t view this as ‘regime change’ because the Venezuelan people already voted for that change.
“He sees it as using American might to restore safety, security, law and order to the hemisphere.”
The Justice Department last month placed a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head, in part for his role in leading “Cartel de los Soles” — Cartel of the Suns — which has shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine and other illicit drugs to the US since the early 2000s, raking in millions.
“Venezuela has been very bad, both in terms of drugs and sending some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world into our country,” Trump said Wednesday. “… We’re getting them out rapidly, but it’s caused a tremendous problem, and Pete and all of the people that are working very hard to rectify the stupidity of the Biden administration allowing these people to pour into our country with open borders.”
“Think of it: opened-up prisons, drug dealers, drug lords, everything coming out of Venezuela. And we said, ‘We’re not going to put up with it anymore,’” he said. “Venezuela has been one of the worse actors in the whole group, and we have a group of pretty bad actors.”
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