Posted on 11/08/2025 9:01:47 PM PST by SeekAndFind
GÜIRIA, Venezuela (AP) — One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet. And a fourth was a down-on-his-luck bus driver.
The men had little in common beyond their Venezuelan seaside hometowns and the fact all four were among the more than 60 people killed since early September when the U.S. military began attacking boats that the Trump administration alleges were smuggling drugs. President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials have alleged the craft were being operated by narco-terrorists and cartel members bound with deadly drugs for American communities.
The Associated Press learned the identities of four of the men – and pieced together details about at least five others – who were slain, providing the first detailed account of those who died in the strikes.
In dozens of interviews in villages on Venezuela’s breathtaking northeastern coast , from which some of the boats departed, residents and relatives said the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang.
Most of the nine men were crewing such craft for the first or second time, making at least $500 per trip, residents and relatives said. They were laborers, a fisherman, a motorcycle taxi driver. Two were low-level career criminals. One was a well-known local crime boss who contracted out his smuggling services to traffickers.
The men lived on the Paria Peninsula, in mostly unpainted cinderblock homes that can go weeks without water service and regularly lose power for several hours a day. They awoke to panoramic views of a national park’s tropical forests, the Gulf of Paria’s shallows and the Caribbean’s sparkling sapphire waters.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
So they were all transporting illegal narcotics.
Not seeing a problem here.
L
I can’t stand Ay-Pee.
Wait.
This is a real article?
> the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang. <
I realize that Associated Press writers are stupid. But are they really too stupid to see the contradiction in that sentence?
If you are running drugs, you are a narco-terrorist.
Sort of like if you are a member of the Nazi party, you are a Nazi.
The Associated Press making excuses for criminals, what a surprise (not).
Aside from the fact they were all smuggling drugs.
..all four were among the more than 60 people killed since early September when the U.S. military began attacking boats that the Trump administration alleges were smuggling drugs.
Yeah, that was just barrels full of fish bait they had on those boats.
Ah. All full of nuance the AP is now.
Oh, brother...not narco-terrorists...just innocent, kindly laborers, fisherman, and a motorcycle taxi driver. Until meanie Trump killed them for no good reason at all.
Poor Venezuela Man. Has Van Hollen flown there to console their families yet?
Instead of high value professional terrorists, they were losers running drugs.
Distinctions without difference.
Lots of grey areas here. All drug runners, but not all of them drug cartel leaders. What shall we do?
Kind of like saying you’re not an adulterer, you’re just cheating on your spouse. A difference without distinction. If you’re doing it, you are one.
It is impossible to interdict effectively all those boats with surface ships. Blowing them out of the water is faster and more effective.
Boo hoo freakin’ hoo!
“residents and relatives said the dead men had indeed been running drugs”
Confirming Trump Administration RIGHT again.
And they were all smuggling drugs.
Ask Glenn Frey how that turns out.
Don’t run Drugs.
Check out peeps brains on drugs....
FAFO mustachio.
[the dead men had indeed been running drugs]
Oh, I see......well then...
BLOW THEM UP
REAL GOOD
NEXT!
Have you ever read something, then wanted to sue the azzholes because they tried to steal an IQ point from you? Enter AP.
Stay off the freaking boat or Trumpy and the USN will cut bait. EOS
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