WASHINGTON — The two survivors of an American military strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean will be sent to Ecuador and Colombia, their home countries, President Donald Trump announced Saturday.

The military rescued the pair after striking a submersible vessel on Thursday, in what was at least the sixth such attack since early September.

“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 in a social media post. “U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”

The Republican president revealed that two people onboard were killed—one more than was previously reported—and that the two survivors are being sent back to their home countries “for detention and prosecution.”

This repatriation avoids questions for the Trump administration regarding the legal status the two would have held within the U.S. justice system.

With Trump’s confirmation on his Truth Social platform of the death toll, U.S. military action against vessels in the region has killed at least 29 people.

The president has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. He is relying on the same legal authority used by the George W. Bush administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks, treating the suspected traffickers as if they were enemy soldiers in a traditional war.

Reporting from West Palm Beach, Fla., Megerian contributed to this story.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/18/drug-strike-survivors-ecuador-colombia-trump/