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.
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.