A senior U.S. official admitted that many of the sea vessels targeted by the Trump administration suspected of drug trafficking did not have the motor capacity or necessary gasoline to reach the United States, according to a report from Drop Site News.
The Trump administration has ramped up hostilities with Venezuela in recent weeks, deploying an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean last week, and destroying at least 10 suspected drug-carrying sea vessels since September, killing at least 43 people that the administration has labeled as “narco-terrorists.”
The Trump administration’s rationale for the targeted strikes – which have received bipartisan condemnation as “extrajudicial killings” – has been to combat drug trafficking it says is orchestrated, in part, by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
However, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke with Drop Site News on the condition of anonymity, a significant number of the vessels that were destroyed lacked the capacity to even reach U.S. waters. Furthermore, the same official told the outlet that the Trump administration’s purported rationale for the strikes – to curb the trafficking of fentanyl – was also not supported by U.S. intelligence.
“U.S. intelligence has assessed that little to none of the fentanyl trafficked to the United States is being produced in Venezuela, despite recent claims from the Trump administration, a senior U.S. official directly familiar with the matter tells Drop Site,” the report reads.
“Despite the lack of intelligence linking Venezuela with fentanyl production, the Trump administration has made alleged Venezuelan drug trafficking the casus belli in its drive to overthrow the government of Nicolas Maduro.”
Anonymous Trump officials also told the outlet that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the chief driver of Trump’s aggressive moves against Venezuela, having convinced the president that, after Maduro offered the Trump administration a stake in its vast oil resources, that he could get a “better deal” on oil if Maduro’s government could be toppled, the outlet reported.
Remarks by Trump officials over the past few weeks have suggested the administration is interested in regime change in Venezuela, with one senior White House official admitting outright that assassinating Maduro to enact regime change was being kept “as an option” by Trump. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has also commented on Venezuela’s “rich resources and reserves” when criticizing Maduro.