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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. is preparing to take its campaign against narco-terrorism directly “on land” inside Venezuela, warning that the Nicolás Maduro regime has already sent “killers, murderers … gang members” and other violent offenders into the U.S. during past years of mass migration.
Speaking in the Oval Office during a Q&A session with reporters, Trump said U.S. forces are escalating operations against the trafficking networks behind the synthetic opioids and narcotics he blames for hundreds of thousands of American deaths.
“We’re knocking out drug boats right now at a level that we haven’t seen,” Trump said. “Very soon we’re going to start doing it on land too.”
The president said American intelligence agencies have mapped the routes, safe houses and production sites used by narcotics manufacturers operating inside Venezuela.
TRUMP SAYS US WILL BEGIN STOPPING VENEZUELAN DRUG TRAFFICKERS BY LAND: ‘GOING TO START VERY SOON’
President Trump suggested land operations in Venezuela may begin “very soon” in the Oval Office Wednesday. (Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We know every route. We know every house. We know where they manufacture this crap, the poison … they’ve been feeding us,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly accused the Maduro government of weaponizing migration. On Wednesday, he repeated his claim that Venezuela “sent us killers, murderers … drug dealers at the highest level … gang members and people from their mental institutions,” alleging the country had “emptied their prisons into our country.”
He argued that this occurred because the U.S. had previously been run by “stupid people … really stupid people.”
TRUMP ENDS VENEZUELA TALKS, MILITARY OPTIONS LOOM, NEW REPORT
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro waves to crowds outside the country’s National Assembly. (Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump tied the potential escalation to the fentanyl…
