Trump Announces US Land Operations Against Venezuelan Traffickers

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the United States will soon begin targeting suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers operating on land, expanding efforts that have already curtailed maritime routes. Speaking virtually to U.S. service members during a Thanksgiving address from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump praised the Air Force's 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, for their role in disrupting these networks.

"You've been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many," Trump said. "Of course, there aren't too many coming in by sea anymore. ... People aren't wanting to be delivering by sea, and we'll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that's going to start very soon." He added that the operations have stopped about 85 percent of sea-based trafficking and warned traffickers to halt shipments of drugs, which he described as poisons killing hundreds of thousands of Americans annually.

The announcement follows months of intensified U.S. counternarcotics actions in the region. Since early September, U.S. forces have conducted at least 21 strikes on vessels in the Eastern Pacific and...