Authorities in the Dominican Republic say a joint operation with the United States led to the destruction of a speedboat carrying more than 2,200 pounds of cocaine. The U.S. Navy carried out an aerial strike against the vessel, which officials described as being operated by narcotraffickers.
The Dominican Republic’s National Directorate for Drug Control said 377 packages of cocaine with logos were seized following the strike.
Sixty packages were “destroyed as a result of the explosion of the vessel,” the directorate said.
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Details of the recent strikes
At a press conference on Sunday, Dominican officials said the speedboat was headed toward their country to use the territory as a transit point for moving cocaine to the U.S.
The drug control directorate said it remains committed to working with international partners to combat drug trafficking, protect national sovereignty and strengthen global cooperation.
On Truth Social last week, President Donald Trump said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the action against what he described as a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility.
“The strike killed three male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel, which was in international waters,” he wrote.
It was the third air strike by the U.S. on boats allegedly carrying drugs this month.
Trump said a previous strike, also carried out in the Southern Command’s area of responsibility in the Caribbean Sea and South America, killed three people. According to Trump, the individuals were identified as Venezuelan nationals linked to a violent drug cartel.
The first strike was announced Sept. 2 and left 11 people dead. Trump said that those on board were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Venezuelan officials, however, say those killed were civilians with no ties to Tren de Aragua. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello told state television that local investigations confirmed none were involved in drug trafficking.
Trump has also criticized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of overseeing drug trafficking, sex trafficking and killings across the Western Hemisphere.
As part of U.S. efforts against drug trafficking, military personnel were deployed to the southern Caribbean in August. Maduro has called the U.S. presence a ”bloody threat” against his country.
Legal and congressional concerns
Democrats in Congress and some military experts have questioned the legality of the U.S. strikes.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump is violating the law and the Constitution.
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As part of a campaign against drug trafficking, the U.S. military has destroyed three small Venezuelan boats since Sept. 2, all allegedly carrying illegal drugs.
“No president can secretly wage war or carry out unjustified killings — that is authoritarianism, not democracy,” Reed said in a statement. “These reckless, unauthorized operations not only put American lives at risk, they threaten to ignite a war with Venezuela that would drag our nation into a conflict we did not choose.”
Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., are pushing a War Powers Act resolution to block U.S. military attacks on Venezuelan vessels that Trump says are carrying fentanyl into the country.
Human Rights Watch condemned the U.S. strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings. The rights group said the attacks violate international human rights law and the right to life under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“U.S. officials cannot summarily kill people they accuse of smuggling drugs,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “The problem of narcotics entering the United States is not an armed conflict, and U.S. officials cannot circumvent their human rights obligations by pretending otherwise.”
Days after the first strike, the White House sent a notice to Congress asserting Trump’s authority to order such actions. The notification said the president may direct additional military operations and argued he is acting under his constitutional powers as commander in chief to protect Americans from national security threats.
