US will send survivors of strike on suspected drug vessel back to Ecuador and Colombia, Trump says
Oct 18, 2025, 11:42 AM
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after arriving on Air Force One, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The two survivors of an American military strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean will be sent to Ecuador and Colombia, their home countries, President Donald Trump said Saturday.
The military rescued the pair after striking a submersible vessel Thursday, in what was at least the sixth such attack since early September.
“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump said in a social media post. “U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”
The Republican president said two people onboard were killed and the two who survived are being sent to their home countries “for detention and prosecution.”
The repatriation avoids questions for the Trump administration about what the legal status of the two would have been in the U.S. justice system.
