Source: The Dispatch
by David Smilde
“The U.S. has sent eight warships and one attack submarine to international waters off the coast of Venezuela, nominally to combat ‘cartels [that] have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere … [and] flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.’ Part of this operation has been the designation of the ‘Cartel de los Soles’ in July, as a specially designated terrorist group. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump celebrated the operation’s first result on Truth Social — a drone strike on a small wooden boat with outboard motors, that he claimed was being used to transport drugs to the U.S. The entire naval operation raises a number of questions. First, Venezuela is not a leading source of the drugs reaching U.S. streets. … Perhaps more important, there is no actual organization called Cartel of the Suns.” (09/04/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/venezuela-strike-cartel-navy-trump-deportations/