Two Venezuelan military planes flew over a U.S. Navy ship that was conducting counter-drug operations, the Department of Defense said Thursday.
The DOD released a statement Thursday night, accusing the Maduro regime of engaging in a “highly provocative move.”
“[T]oday, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters. This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations. The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the US military,” the statement read.
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) September 5, 2025
This comes two days after the U.S. attacked a boat where Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua was drug-smuggling in the Caribbean Sea. The attack killed 11 narco-terrorists.
CBS News reported that the Venezuelan aircraft were allegedly armed F-16 fighter jets.
The U.S. ship that was being flown over was the USS Jason Dunham, an Aegis guided-missile destroyer, according to CBS. The ship is part of a flotilla of warships sent to the area recently in order to go after narco-terrorists and criminal organizations.
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The Trump administration has accused Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro of helping drug cartels in order to traffic narcotics into the U.S.
Last month, the Justice Department placed a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head, with Attorney General Pam Bondi saying that “[H]e is one of the largest narco traffickers in the world, and a threat to our national security.”
The administration designated both Tren de Aragua and another Venezuelan crime syndicate, Cartel de Los Soles, as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this year.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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