US striking and destroying supposed Drug Speed Boats
Ok, first of all, the fact that this picture was taken from an article about this subject does not, I think, mean this is one of the destroyed boats. I have no idea if the US military does provide this kind of evidence.
This has been a hot topic on the news for the last month or two. The US has started striking boats that they think are carrying drugs to the US. I have read that this boats are carrying Fentanyl, but as far as I know South America is not a Fentanyl exporter to the US, so if these boats are carrying drugs it is probably cocaine with maybe a little heroin.
Is this really possible? Well, I live in Honduras and for a long time I have heard of people who have worked on drug carrying speed boats. These boats have four or even more outboard motors and are capable of reaching very high speeds. but their destiny is not the US they go to places in Central America or maybe some Caribbean islands. nowadays they are supposed to also be using the Pacific corridor. Do not think the men who do this kind of work are not aware of the dangers, the US attacking them is just another danger they face. They do it because the pay is very good.
Ok, I will tell you a story, I had a friend who decided to do a run on one of these boats along with three or four other guys. I think on his first run he was intercepted by another boat, I guess trafficking rivals and they were all killed. My friend was the last one and the killers let him talk to a friend of his in the Bay Islands so he would let the families of the murdered guys know they were dead. I am telling you, the money is good, but I would not do that job ever.
On the other hand the US is striking these boats, I guess based on gathered intelligence, but I don't know how much faith people can have on intelligence gathered by US agencies. Remember Irak? Plus I can assure you the US Coast Guard has very fast vessels has satellite live views and can easily just intercept the boats with no need of killing anyone. OK, saying maybe drug traffickers need killing might be a way of trying to rationalize this practice. But what if intelligence is wrong and some of these boats are really fishing boats?
And anyway this whole war on drugs is a joke, Mr. Trump just pardoned the ex-President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez who was captured, indicted, put on trial and convicted of a few drug related crimes and was sentenced to 45 years in prison, So if you are going to free the kingpins why even trouble killing lowly sailors? I think the President of Honduras was right saying she would revoke the extradition treaty with the US, it actually makes no sense if these guys are freed a few years later, which has happened with quite a few of these guys. Finally I must say I am very much against striking these boats, if you can actually capture them. Plus you lose out on any information the prisoners could give you. But then again I am not involved in the World of big deals, so what do I know?