"Must Treat Them Like Al Qaedas": FBI Chief On Drug Trafficking Organisations
Drug trafficking organisations must be treated the way foreign terrorist organisations were treated after the September 11, 2001, attacks, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Tuesday, pledging that the campaign against them will be a years-long mission.
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FBI Director Kash Patel giving testimony at Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
FBI Director Kash Patel stated Tuesday that drug trafficking organizations should be combated with the same approach used against foreign terrorist organizations following the September 11, 2001 attacks, emphasizing that this campaign will require years of dedicated effort.
"We must treat them like the al Qaedas of the world," Patel declared during a Senate hearing, just one day after President Donald Trump announced that US military forces had conducted a strike on a second Venezuelan vessel in international waters.
According to Trump, three individuals were killed in the operation, and he claimed the boat was transporting narcotics, though he provided no supporting evidence for this assertion.
"The manhunt after 9/11 took some years and this is going to be a years-long mission," Patel emphasized.
The Trump administration has also released minimal information regarding a similar strike conducted on September 2, despite Congressional demands for justification of these actions. Officials have alleged that those on board were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and reported 11 casualties.
Venezuelan government officials have denied that any of the individuals killed in the first strike were affiliated with Tren de Aragua.
The strategy of destroying suspected drug vessels rather than seizing them and arresting their crews represents an unusual approach that evokes comparisons to US operations against militant groups such as al Qaeda.
Critics have characterized these actions in international waters as another example of Trump testing legal boundaries while expanding presidential authority. The US Constitution explicitly grants Congress, not the president, the power to declare war.
Patel's statements aligned with recent comments from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, as administration officials attempt to justify major military deployments to the southern Caribbean for counter-narcotics operations.
"A foreign terrorist organisation poisoning your people with drugs coming from a drug cartel is no different than al Qaeda, and they will be treated as such," Hegseth stated earlier this month.