THIS is the moment the US blasted a drug-smuggling submarine off the coast of Venezuela, wiping out two “narcoterrorists”.
Trump celebrated the operation online and said it was a “great honour” to destroy the sub, which was apparently “loaded up with mostly fentanyl”.
Footage posted by the President to Truth Social shows the large submarine crashing along just below the ocean’s surface.
An explosion erupts from the water as precision weapons pound onto the vessel.
It is engulfed in a second blast just moments later, and there is nothing left to be seen of it.
The sub bombing comes as Venezuela’s dictatorship is gearing up to face off a wave of elite American troops stationed off its coast.
Trump said: “There were four known narco-terrorists on board the vessel. Two of the terrorists were killed.”
He also claimed that “at least 25,000 Americans would die if I allowed this submarine to come ashore”.
The two survivors will be sent back to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, where they will be detained and prosecuted, the President said.
No US troops were injured in the operation.
While the footage has just been released, Trump boasted about the operation during his meeting with Ukraine’s President Zelensky yesterday.
He said the target was carrying “massive amounts of drugs”.
He added: “Just so you understand, this was not an innocent group of people.”
Analysts watching a feed of the strike spotted the two survivors bobbing in the water among the wreckage, the New York Times reported.
They had assessed ahead of the strike that the sub was loaded with drugs.
The survivors were reportedly scooped up by Navy and Coast Guard helicopters and brought to a ship with medical facilities.
They were somehow uninjured during the operation, two sources familiar with the matter told the Washington Post.
It’s unclear if they have ties to Venezuelan criminal organizations.
Trump this week announced he would deploy 10,000 US troops, nuclear-capable bombers, and America’s most elite special operations unit — the “Night Stalkers” — to the waters off Venezuela.
He is taking the fight to the all-powerful drug cartels, who he claims are backed by Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro.
The Caribbean is now bracing for its most explosive showdown in decades as Maduro whips his country into a war footing and vows to repel any US attack.
In a dramatic escalation, three B-52 bombers — the same heavy bombers used in Iraq and Syria — flew for hours off Venezuela’s coast this week.
Meanwhile, MH-6 Little Birds and MH-60 Black Hawks from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, carried out low-level flights just 90 miles from Venezuelan territory.
The storied unit, famed for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, specialises in lighting-fast, low-altitude night missions and often carries Green Berets, Navy SEALs and Delta Force operators into battle.
Most of the American force is based in Puerto Rico, with about 2,200 Marines stationed on amphibious assault ships.
The Pentagon has also deployed F-35B stealth fighters, P-8 Poseidon spy planes, and MQ-9 Reaper drones to the region.
Trump’s war on drugs
DONALD Trump has launched his full-scale war on drugs – favouring missiles over law enforcement.
The first day of Trump’s second term kicked off with the designation of narcotraffickers as terrorists – giving him the right to kill them before they can reach American shores.
This is the argument he has used in the face of law experts warning that his decision to strike a suspected drug-smuggling boat on Tuesday was illegal.
Washington-watchers claim that the gangsters should have been arrested – but the White House says that law enforcement is ineffective.
Trump vowed after the blitz: “There’s more where that came from.”
The US President has long spoken of his desire to enact force to take on drug cartels, which he accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of actively backing.
Maduro has denied the allegations, and the last few months have seen teetering escalations deteriorate into a tense standoff.
The US has positioned naval destroyers and soldiers around Maduro’s waters, while the Venezuelan dictator has ordered mass mobilisation of troops.
