WATCH: US Coast Guard Blows Up ‘Drug Boat’ at Sea

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a video Tuesday on X showing the U.S. Coast Guard capturing a “drug boat” before burning and sinking it.

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has led a massive crackdown on drug cartels, designating certain international cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations through an executive order in January. In a post to X, the DHS said that the U.S. Coast Guard’s Cutter Stone, the ninth Legend-class cutter, conducted three interdictions in a single night over the weekend as part of Operation Pacific Viper.

Among the interceptions, officials seized “nearly 13,000 pounds of cocaine and apprehended seven suspected drug smugglers.” The DHS post included a video showing the “drug boat” being blown up and repeatedly shot at, with flames engulfing the vessel as the shots hit.

WATCH:

In early August, the U.S. Coast Guard launched Operation Pacific Viper and had since interdicted a daily average of over 1,600 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, according to a press release. Due to the operation launch, the U.S. Coast Guard has accelerated its “counter-drug operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, where significant transport of illicit narcotics continues from South America.”

The bust of the “drug boat” comes after Trump announced on Sept. 2 that the American military sank a vessel belonging to Venezuelan drug cartel Tren de Aragua, killing 11 cartel members on board. The strike, conducted by the U.S. Southern Command in international waters, took place near three Aegis-class missile boats stationed alongside other assets to disrupt the Latin American cartel’s drug trade routes.

In a post about the hit against the organization, Trump wrote that the drug cartel has been “operating under the control of [Venezuela President] Nicolas Maduro,” who is “responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.”

Since Trump’s pushback on cartels, Democrats have since sided with the members of Tren de Aragua drug cartel. In an MSNBC interview Thursday, Independent Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff called Trump’s decision “alarming,” “unprecedented” and “dangerous,” accusing him of trying to “overextend and abuse military power.” Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler also demanded Trump “face criminal charges,” saying he acted as “the judge, jury and executioner” in the strike against the terrorist group.

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