The Dominican Republic has indicated that a boat targeted by a U.S. airstrike had been ferrying "approximately 1,000 kilograms of suspected cocaine."
That figure converts to more than 2,200 pounds, which is more than one ton of the drug.
The Dominican Republic indicated that its National Drug Control Directorate and its navy seized hundreds of packages of the drug following the American attack against the vessel. "The packages were sent, under chain of custody, to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) to determine their exact type and weight," the country noted.
"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," the National Drug Control Directorate news release states.
This marked the first "joint operation against narcoterrorism in the Caribbean region" executed between the Dominican Republic and the U.S., according to the release about the effort.
President Donald Trump has ordered strikes on several boats this month as he seeks to crackdown on drug trafficking to 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 about one of the strikes.
A U.S. government fact sheet about cocaine describes 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."- Article Source:
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- Photo: Oliver Olah / unsplash.com
