Trump says two drug-vessel survivors will be sent to home countries : NPR
President Trump speaks to reporters after arriving aboard Air Force One Friday at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
WASHINGTON — The two survivors of a U.S. military strike on a suspected drug ship in the Caribbean will be sent to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia, President Donald Trump said Saturday.
The military rescued the two men after they hit a submersible vessel on Thursday, in what was at least the sixth such attack since early September.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG SUBMARINE that was sailing to the United States on a transit route well known for drug trafficking,” Trump said in a social media post. “US intelligence confirmed that this vessel was loaded primarily with fentanyl and other illegal narcotics.”
The Republican president said two people on board were killed – one more than previously reported – and that the two who survived were being returned to their home countries “for detention and prosecution.”
The repatriation prevents the Trump administration from asking questions about the legal status of the two men in the American justice system.
With Trump’s confirmation of the death toll on his Truth Social platform, this means that US military action against shipping in the region has killed at least 29 people.
The president justified the strikes by saying the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. It draws on the same legal authority used by the George W. Bush administration when it declared war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks and treats suspected traffickers as if they were enemy soldiers in a traditional war.
