The White House on Saturday released video footage of a U.S. strike on a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean, the sixth such attack reported by U.S. officials, and the first to leave survivors.
The video, released two days after President Donald Trump publicly confirmed the operation, shows a semi-submersible battling rough waves before being struck by U.S. forces. According to The New York Times, a Special Operations aircraft carried out the attack in the southern Caribbean, and analysts later observed at least two survivors in the water alongside floating debris and several bales, believed to be drugs, near the smoldering wreckage.
The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard deployed helicopters and recovered two individuals from the water, transporting them to the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima for medical care. Trump later confirmed on social media that the two survivors, whom he referred to as “terrorists”, were citizens of Ecuador and Colombia and would be returned to their home countries for detention and prosecution.
According to The New York Times, the individuals have been transferred from Pentagon custody to the U.S. State Department for repatriation. In past cases involving interdictions outside U.S. territory, Washington has handed over suspects to allied nations. However, the Coast Guard has also previously prosecuted drug traffickers intercepted in the Caribbean under U.S. jurisdiction.
Colombia’s Interior Minister, Armando Benedetti, confirmed late Saturday that one of the men, a 34-year-old Colombian national, had been returned and was receiving treatment for brain trauma while on a ventilator.
Unlike earlier U.S. strikes on drug-smuggling vessels, the administration did not link this operation to Venezuela, which had been cited in prior incidents. The administration has justified recent actions under the president’s declaration designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations and combatants, allowing military engagement at sea.
In his earlier statement announcing the first semi-submersible strike, Trump said the vessel was carrying mostly fentanyl and other illegal narcotics toward the United States and claimed that stopping it had prevented tens of thousands of potential deaths. He also emphasized that no U.S. forces were harmed during the operation.
Yesterday, the United States reported its seventh strike on a boat accused of smuggling narcotics. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released video of the operation, saying three men were killed. He identified the vessel as being linked to Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), describing it as part of a known narco-trafficking route and “loaded with substantial amounts of drugs.”
This latest incident brings the total number of attacks acknowledged by the Trump administration to seven, with officials reporting 32 people killed since the maritime campaign began in early September — underscoring the administration’s rapidly escalating military approach to combating narcotrafficking in the Caribbean.
On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility.
The… pic.twitter.com/1v7oR879LC
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 19, 2025
(AI was used in part to facilitate this article.)