#venezuelan-drug-boats

#venezuelan-drug-boats

The Gran Grif gang has continued to sow terror in the Artibonite region of Haiti, where Petite-Riviere de l'Artibonite is located. It has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration last year.

The imminent arrival of the Anatoly Kolodkin tanker comes as The New York Times, citing a US official, reported that Washington was allowing the Russian tanker to reach Cuba, amid a de facto oil blockade imposed by the US administration.

These semi-submersible boats have been used for years by drug gangs to smuggle cocaine from South and Central America. In more recent months as the price of cocaine has plummeted, gangs have changed tactics: instead of letting the boats sink on delivery, they have started to reuse the vessels, setting up a refuelling platform at sea and sending the boats back so they can make as many journeys as possible.

US Coast Guard tactical teams worked closely with its counterparts at the Departments of War, Department of Justice and State and used their specialized expertise to conduct these operations and conduct two safe, effective boardings within hours of each other. One of these tankers, Motor Tanker Bella I, has been trying to evade the Coast Guard for weeks, even changing its flag and painting a new name on the hull while being pursued, in a desperate and failed attempt to escape justice.

United States forces have boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the North Atlantic after a weekslong pursuit, according to officials. They say the vessel, now called the Marinera, is part of a shadow fleet moving oil for Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions. The tanker was previously named Bella-1 and recently switched its registration to Russia. Its crew reportedly even painted a Russian flag on the hull.

On Tuesday, during an extended Cabinet meeting, Colombian President Gustavo Petro denounced two plots that initially drew little attention but would have halted the political agenda in almost any other country. As if downplaying it, Petro claimed that earlier this week someone tried to kill him while he was traveling by helicopter. According to his account, the aircraft had to change course and fly over the ocean for four hours before it could land.

Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations, the Southern Command said in a statement. The command included a video of the strike with its announcement, which shows a boat traveling through the water as it explodes into flames after being hit with what looks like a missile. The Southern Command and the Pentagon did not immediately return requests for additional information.

U.S. military forces have tracked and intercepted a Russian-flagged oil tanker in international waters that had tried to circumvent Washington's blockade on Venezuelan crude exports, the U.S. military's European command confirmed on Wednesday. After a chase that lasted two weeks, the oil tanker was intercepted in North Atlantic waters near Iceland in a joint operation between the Coast Guard and the U.S. military, Reuters reported.

It accuses the captured Venezuelan leader of running a state-sponsored drug terror network for years. Maduro, it says, collaborated with the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which now operates throughout Latin America, as well as with the Colombian FARC guerrilla group and the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, to smuggle cocaine into the US and enrich himself personally. The indictment described Venezuela as being systematically developed into a hub for international cocaine trafficking, with state aircraft and even the presidential hangar being used to transport cocaine.