 "‘25,000 Americans would have died’: Trump says US forces destroyed ‘very large’ drug submarine in Caribbean")
US President Donald Trump on Sunday (October 19, 2025) said that American forces destroyed a “very large” drug-carrying submarine in the Caribbean that was reportedly heading toward the United States. He said the vessel was carrying fentanyl and other drugs and claimed that at least 25,000 Americans could have died if it had reached the shore.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Two of the terrorists were killed. The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution.”
📹 DESTROYED: Confirmed DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE navigating towards the United States on a well-known narcotrafficking transit route.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 18, 2025
"Under my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea." - President Trump pic.twitter.com/N4TAkgPHXN
Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed that the Colombian suspect had been repatriated. “We are glad he is alive and he will be prosecuted according to the law,” Petro said on X.
The strike, announced by Trump on Friday, is part of an intensified US military campaign aimed at stopping the flow of drugs from Latin America to the United States. Since September, at least six vessels—mostly speedboats—have been targeted in the Caribbean, with some allegedly originating from Venezuela.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWashington says the operation has dealt a significant blow to drug trafficking, though it has not provided evidence that all those killed—at least 27 so far—were drug smugglers. Experts have raised concerns that such summary killings may be illegal even if the targets are confirmed traffickers.
Semi-submersible vessels like the one destroyed are often built in clandestine jungle shipyards and have long been used to transport cocaine from South America, especially Colombia, to Central America or Mexico, usually via the Pacific Ocean.
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