Wreckage from Trump's Venezuela boat strike reveals it was smuggling drugs the president calls 'tremendously positive'
Wreckage from US strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean have allegedly washed up on shore and reveal contents of the vessel may not have been as deadly as Trump's team has said.
By KATELYN CARALLE, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER
Published: 16:01 GMT, 31 December 2025 | Updated: 17:12 GMT, 31 December 2025
Burnt wreckage from US strikes on a drug boat in the Caribbean have washed up on shore and reveal contents of the vessel may not have been as deadly as President Donald Trump's team has proclaimed.
The New York Times reports that what appears to be the first physical evidence from the operations against alleged narcoterrorism contain several empty packets with traces of substances with the look and smell of marijuana.
No evidence or traces were found of fentanyl, cocaine or other more deadly narcotics that Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth claim the Caribbean strikes are targeting, according to the report.
Marijuana is legal in 40 of 50 US states and is not the drug that Trump has said he is targeting in his Central and South American military campaign.
Additionally, earlier this month the president signed an executive order to reclassify cannabis out of the most restrictive drug category. Going from schedule I to schedule III loosens limits on research, but stops short of making it legal on a federal level.
At the Oval Office signing on December 18, Trump called the use of the drug to treat medical problems as 'legitimate.'
'It's going to have a tremendously positive impact,' Trump said of the marijuana reclassification order.
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment on whether they could confirm if the wreckage found ashore in Colombia was from the US strikes.
What seems to be the first known wreckage from the drug boat strikes that washed up on shore of Colombia last month appears to prove the vessel was carrying marijuana, according to the New York Times
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on December 18, 2025 reclassifying marijuana from the most severe Schedule I illicit substance to the less serious Schedule III
Last week, Trump revealed casually in a radio call-in interview that the US began land strikes in Venezuela, signaling an escalation in a campaign that began last fall.
The president then confirmed on Monday that on Christmas Eve the US hit 'the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs' along the shore of Venezuela.