The U.S. military is preparing for strikes against drug traffickers inside Venezuela, according to four sources who spoke with NBC News.
President Donald Trump has not approved any action yet, and the U.S. and Venezuela are reportedly talking through Middle Eastern intermediaries.
The report came three days after Trump said recent U.S. strikes on boats carrying alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers delivered a powerful warning to anyone seeking to bring drugs into the United States.
"To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence," Trump said in an address to the United Nations.
He also repeated his assertion that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro leads drug-trafficking networks, which Maduro denies.
The Trump administration has conducted at least three deadly strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.
Two of the sources and an additional official familiar with the discussions told NBC News the recent military escalation is in part because Trump doesn't think Maduro is doing enough to stop the flow of illegal drugs out of his country.
In a statement, the White House told NBC: "We'll see what happens. Venezuela is sending us their gang members, their drug dealers and drugs. It's not acceptable."
Anibal Sanchez Ismayel, a Venezuelan political analyst, told NBC News in a WhatsApp message that an attack on Venezuelan soil "would have consequences from diplomatic protests to an increase in political persecutions of those they classify as collaborators, to further uniting the population with the need to defend sovereignty reaffirmed."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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