[News] Deadly US strikes hit eastern Pacific hours after Washington labels Fentanyl ‘WMD’

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Deadly US strikes hit eastern Pacific hours after Washington labels
Fentanyl ‘WMD’

Narcotics experts and reports from the DEA have refuted Trump’s claims that
the Fentanyl entering the US originates from Venezuela

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

DEC 16, 2025 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/deadly-us-strikes-hit-eastern-pacific-hours-after-washington-labels-fentanyl-wmd
(Photo credit: AFP)

The US military carried out an airstrike
<https://www.local10.com/news/politics/2025/12/15/us-military-says-strikes-on-3-boats-in-the-eastern-pacific-ocean-kill-8-people-2/>
targeting several alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific
Ocean late on 15 December, killing eight people just hours after US
President Donald Trump announced that Washington is officially declaring
Fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).

The army’s Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said it bombed “designated terrorist
organizations” with “lethal kinetic strikes.”

SOUTHCOM added that eight were killed – “Three in the first vessel, two in
the second, and three in the third.”

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known
narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in
narco-trafficking,” it went on to say.

The US Army did not provide any evidence confirming that the three boats
were involved in trafficking narcotics.

A video shared by the military showed a boat moving through the water
before being blown up.

Hours earlier, Trump announced that the US is officially declaring Fentanyl
a WMD. “Two to three hundred thousand people die every year, that we know
of, so we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass
destruction,” Trump said.

The executive order stated that “the manufacture and distribution of
fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our
national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our
borders.”

The invasion and occupation of Iraq, which killed over a million people,
was launched under false claims that Saddam Hussein’s government possessed
WMDs.

The US announcement coincides with a continued military buildup in the
Caribbean Sea and recent airstrikes on what Washington claims are “drug
boats” responsible for the flow of Fentanyl into the US.

Trump claims Venezuela is the origin of much of the Fentanyl that enters
the US, a claim that has been refuted
<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/us/politics/trump-venezuela-fentanyl.html>
by narcotics experts and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reports
<https://www.cato.org/blog/trumps-venezuela-gambit-incoherent-encore-failed-drug-war>
.

These attacks have killed at least 93 people since September, including
innocent fishermen from Colombia, Ecuador, and Trinidad and Tobago.

On 2 September, the US bombed an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in
international waters near Venezuela. The first airstrike destroyed the boat
and killed most of the people aboard. Two unarmed survivors clinging to
wreckage were then killed in a deadly follow-up strike right after.

Washington has come under heavy scrutiny for the “double tap” attack.
The *Washington
Post* reported that US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave orders to “kill
everybody” on board. Hegseth denied the report.

Members of Congress have demanded
<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/defense-policy-bill-includes-provision-limiting-defense-secretarys-tra-rcna248117>
the release of video footage showing the strike. A new defense policy bill
includes a provision on putting limits on Hegseth’s 2026 travel budget
until he provides the footage of the 2 September strike.

Last week, the US seized a Venezuelan oil tanker
<https://thecradle.co/articles/venezuela-charges-washington-with-theft-piracy-after-seizure-of-oil-tanker>
in the Caribbean Sea. The US had imposed sanctions on the vessel under
claims it was involved in the Iranian oil trade.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry strongly condemned what it said was a
“blatant theft and an act of international piracy, publicly announced by
the President of the US, who confessed to the assault on an oil tanker in
the Caribbean Sea.”

“Already in his 2024 campaign, [Trump] openly stated that his objective has
always been to keep Venezuelan oil without paying any consideration in
return, making it clear that the policy of aggression against our country
responds to a deliberate plan to plunder our energy wealth,” the Venezuelan
Foreign Ministry added.

“The true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have
finally been revealed. It is not migration. It is not narcotics
trafficking. It is not democracy. It is not human rights. It has always
been about our natural wealth,” the statement went on to say.
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