President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth before speaking to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"’Innocent fisherman’ is the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax – just like the media tried to paint MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia as ‘father of the year,’ they are now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans. President Trump is using every element of American power to take on the cartels and stop deadly drugs from flooding into our country – just like he promised on the campaign trail," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital.
Trump has long vowed to take on the ongoing opioid epidemic and stop foreign drugs and precursor chemicals from flowing into the U.S. The administration has defended the at least 22 strikes, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, on suspected narco-boats as protecting the U.S. from cartels looking to "poison Americans."
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he ordered a lethal strike on a vessel linked to a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility on Sept. 19. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK AMID CARIBBEAN STRIKE OVERSIGHT
The Trump administration launched the strikes after the president campaigned to end the flow of narcotics into the U.S. from nations including China, Mexico and Central and South America. The Trump administration turned its attention toward Venezuela, which is led by dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro, saying the U.S. is engaged in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels after the groups evolved into transnational terror organizations.
The administration has defended the strikes as necessary to curb the flow of opioid deaths in the U.S., while experts have also said the pressure campaign on Venezuela is likely aimed to also oust Maduro as leader of the oil-rich nation.
HEGSETH DID NOT ISSUE 'KILL THEM ALL' ORDER DURING VENEZUELA STRIKES, ADMIRAL TELLS CONGRESS
The CDC found that an estimated 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose between 1999-2023. The opioid crisis is viewed as unfolding in three waves, beginning in the 1990s with the increase in prescriptions to opioids, the CDC reported, followed by the second wave that began in 2010, when heroin overdoses spiked, and finally the current third wave of deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.
The crisis has slowed from its high of 81,806 opioid-related deaths in 2022, with 2023 marking the first annual decline in deaths since 2018, according to CDC data. There were an estimated 79,358 opioid deaths in 2023, according to CDC data.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is facing increasing pressure from the U.S. as the Trump administ (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)
"These boats, they’re stacked up with bags of white powder, that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs too," Trump said in September. "Every boat kills 25,000."
Democrats in past decades have promoted fiery rhetoric focused on taking out foreign narco-terrorist, including then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden calling for "another D-Day" to end the war on drugs in a 1989 address criticizing Republican President George H.W. Bush's administration for not taking strong enough action on the crack cocaine epidemic.
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"Let's go after the drug lords where they live with an international strike force. There must be no safe haven for these narco-terrorists and they must know it," Biden said in the 1989 speech.
Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-escalate-war-crime-accusations-white-house-calls-innocent-fisherman-new-maryland-man-hoax