The Dominican Republic has reported that a vessel targeted by a U.S. airstrike was transporting “approximately 1,000 kilograms of suspected cocaine.”
This quantity translates to over 2,200 pounds, which is more than one ton of the substance.
Dominican authorities indicated that its National Drug Control Directorate and navy confiscated hundreds of packages of the drug following the American attack on the ship. “The packages were sent, under chain of custody, to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) to determine their exact type and weight,” the statement added.
“Dominican authorities, in close coordination with the United States Southern Command (Southcom) and the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-South), detected a speedboat (Go Fast type), which according to intelligence reports was loaded with narcotics and was heading to Dominican territory, with the intention of using the country as a bridge to take it to the United States,” a National Drug Control Directorate news release stated.
This marked the initial “joint operation against narcoterrorism in the Caribbean region” conducted between the Dominican Republic and the U.S., according to the release detailing the effort.
President has authorized strikes on several boats this month as part of his strategy to combat drug trafficking into the U.S.
“IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!” the commander in chief warned last week in a Truth Social post concerning one of the operations.
A U.S. government document describing cocaine characterizes the substance as “an intense, euphoria-producing stimulant drug with strong addictive potential” and notes that “Tolerance to cocaine’s effects develops rapidly, causing users to take higher and higher doses.”