This picture is making the rounds.
To some, it's proof positive that this is a drug boat, suggesting that whoever was in that boat deserved it. I've also seen explained as a fuel boat.
Yes, that boat doesn't look like the boats we usually see. The boat in the picture is very common to the Venezuela, Columbia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, area.
These are independent countries but somewhat commercially connected maritime economies, primarily fishing and small-time mercantilism.
I've had a client who was hired to deliver fuel from Ecuador to Mexico, another one would fish in Tobago and spend the weekends with his family in Venezuela.
Are the blue items in the picture fuel drums or bales of coke? I could see that go both ways...
This is the recently released picture of the September 2 boat.
Assuming, arguendo, that this is not more administration bs.... triple engines, tarps on deck, fuel drums, in my mind those are red flags...
But, eleven people on that boat?
No. The size of crews is limited by boat size. These yolas are small. More crew, less space for fuel or cargo. The crews are usually no larger than four or five. The size of what is arguably the contraband seems small.
The argument against these strikes made by Rand Paul and others - that these small vessels can't reach Puerto Rico, much less the mainland - is misplaced. The MDLEA - the law that seeks to guide these extraterritorial seizures - is a preemptive one. It is based on the assumption that the contraband will eventually land here. The latest war fantasy extends that first strike premise.
Whatever.
Who or what was on that boat is not the issue. It could have a deck loaded with hundreds of boxes clearly marked "fentanyl" with "bound for the US" and it wouldn't matter. The issue is this administration's imposition of a capital punishment where no law authorizes it. These are serial murders. It didn't take the second strike to make it so.
