WATCH: Few details on latest boat strike; two survivors in custody

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

President Donald Trump released few details Friday afternoon amid reports that two survivors of a suspected drug submarine strike near Venezuela were in U.S. custody.

A reporter asked Trump during a White House meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the two survivors. Trump initially referred the question to Marco Rubio, who said U.S. officials would release details later. After that, Trump provided new information about what happened on Thursday.

“Let me answer. That was in a submarine, right? We attacked a submarine. And that was a drug-carrying submarine built specifically for the transportation of massive amounts of drugs,” Trump said. “Just so you understand. This was not an innocent group of people. I don’t know too many people that have submarines.”

Rubio audibly laughed at that last part. Rubio said U.S. officials weren’t prepared to release all the attack details.

“We’re undertaking these operations against narcoterrorists. That’s what these are, these are terrorists, let’s be clear,” Rubio said. “As far as the details of any recent operation, when we are prepared to announce those, we will.”

Neither Trump nor Rubio addressed reports of survivors.

At least two people who survived the strike were in U.S. custody, NBC News reported Friday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

Trump and military officials have released few details about the growing number of strikes, but Trump has posted videos of at least four recent strikes. The Pentagon has not confirmed the number of strikes or their dates.

Rubio said more details would be released in the future, possibly even Friday, but didn’t provide a specific timeline.

Trump’s use of military strikes on suspected drug boats marks a new strategy in the war on drugs. Previously, U.S. forces stopped suspect vessels, made arrests, and seized drugs.

Last week, Trump told Congress that the U.S. is engaged in “armed conflict” with drug cartels in the Caribbean.

“The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” according to the confidential notice the administration sent to Congress. Trump directed the U.S. Department of War to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.”

Earlier this week, Trump announced the fifth or sixth such strike. Trump said the military strike on a suspected drug boat off the coast of Venezuela on Tuesday killed six suspected traffickers.

Trump also confirmed this week that the CIA was conducting operations in Venezuela, in a rare public acknowledgment of the spy agency’s work in a foreign nation.

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has been accused of consolidating power through fraudulent elections. In 2024, his reelection was widely condemned as illegitimate, with allegations of vote tampering and intimidation of opposition leaders. Maduro is also facing allegations of human rights abuses, corruption, and drug trafficking. U.S. prosecutors have charged Maduro with running a drug cartel that allegedly uses cocaine trafficking as a tool to sustain the regime.

After one of the U.S. strikes against a speedboat, agents from the Dominican Republic’s National Drug Control Directorate and the Dominican Republic Navy seized 377 packages of suspected cocaine about 80 nautical miles south of Beata Island, Pedernales province.

U.S. officials haven’t provided details about the operations or what was found on the boats.

Last week, Republican senators shut down a Democrat-led proposal that would have required Trump to get congressional approval before using the military to destroy suspected drug boats in the region. In a 51-48 vote, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted with Democrats in favor of the measure. Republicans blocked it with help from Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, didn’t vote on the measure.

Trump previously said the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua was using the boats to smuggle drugs to the U.S. He said the strikes would prevent the overdose deaths of Americans.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration doesn’t consider Tren de Aragua to be a major drug smuggling operation. Tren de Aragua members conduct “small-scale drug trafficking activities,” according to the DEA’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment. That same report, released in May, noted that most cocaine comes from Colombia.

“Colombia remains the primary source country for cocaine entering the United States, followed by Peru and Bolivia,” according to the report. “Mexico-based cartels obtain multi-ton cocaine shipments from South America and smuggle it via sea, air, or overland to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for subsequent movement into the United States.”