This week, two individuals who survived a U.S. military operation against a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean will be sent back to their home countries, Colombia and Ecuador, according to President Trump.

President Trump took to his social media platform on Saturday, expressing pride in the military’s successful destruction of a “large drug-carrying submarine” that was reportedly heading towards the United States along a notorious narcotrafficking route.

The president stated that the submarine was packed with significant quantities of fentanyl and other illegal drugs. He described the four people aboard the vessel as “narcoterrorists” and confirmed that two of them were killed during the operation.

Trump also mentioned that the two surviving individuals would be sent back to Ecuador and Colombia for detention and legal proceedings.

Analysts suggest that sending these individuals back home avoids the Trump administration having to decide their legal status within the U.S. judicial system, thereby sidestepping potential legal issues related to the strike.

This recent military action marks the sixth strike on suspected drug vessels near Venezuela since September 2, bringing the death toll from these operations to at least 29.

Critics say such use of military force, which Trump has justified by saying the U.S. is engaging in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, appears to violate both international and domestic law.

“All available evidence suggests that President Trump’s lethal strikes in the Caribbean constitute murder, pure and simple,” Jeffrey Stein, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, said in a statement this week.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Navy commander overseeing the strikes on the alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean would step down by the end of the year.

Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of the U.S. Southern Command, has only been in his post for roughly 11 months — a position that was expected to last three years.

With News Wire Services