The U.S. struck another alleged drug vessel Tuesday night, this time on the Pacific side of South America, according to two U.S. officials.
In what is the eighth known U.S. attack on a boat since Sept. 2, two to three individuals aboard the vessel were killed. The other seven strikes targeted vessels in the Caribbean.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” “We want to keep fentanyl out of the United States, … but those routes through the Caribbean on boats are predominantly used to bring cocaine to Europe,” not to the U.S. And fentanyl tends to be transported to to the U.S. “from a different way,” Kelly added.
The Pentagon has not yet responded to a request for information about the nationalities of the individuals on the boat.
Kelly also told “Face the Nation” that when administration officials briefed Congress on the drug vessel strikes, they “had a very hard time explaining to us the rationale, the legal rationale for doing this and the constitutionality of doing it.” He said lawmakers were told there is “a secret list of over 20 narco organizations, drug trafficking cartels,” but U.S. officials did not share the list with Congress.
At least 34 people have been killed in U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats. The Trump administration has told Congress the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans every year, and this constitutes an “armed attack.”
Two men survived a U.S. strike on a suspected drug-trafficking submersible vessel in the Caribbean last week, and the U.S. repatriated the men, one from Ecuador and one from Colombia. Ecuador released the man, identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño, after authorities said they had found no evidence that he had committed a crime.
The Colombian citizen remains hospitalized after his repatriation. Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said he “arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, breathing with a ventilator.” Authorities there said he would face prosecution. Two other men were killed in the strike on the submersible vessel.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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