United States sinks alleged drug-trafficking boat in Caribbean; Venezuela claims video of exploding boat was AI-created.

Sept 2025 : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a “kinetic strike” on a vessel from Venezuela that was allegedly transporting illegal narcotics. The attack, the first of its kind since the US deployed warships to the southern Caribbean, resulted in the deaths of 11 people. Trump stated that the vessel was a speedboat carrying a “lot of drugs”. He shared a video on social media showing an overhead view of the boat exploding and on fire. He identified the crew as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the US designated as a terrorist group.

Venezuela is not controlled by a government; it has been taken over by a narco-terrorist cartel, El Cartel, twitted by Ingrid McKenzie (@IngridKellaghan) on September 02^nd., 2025. “We just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat. And there’s more where that came from. We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time; These came out of Venezuela. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No US Forces were harmed in this strike”.

The Republican leader insisted that the gang is controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which Caracas has repeatedly denied. The US has recently increased its naval presence in the region to combat drug trafficking, a move that Maduro has responded to by deploying his own troops and calling on citizens to join a militia. The decision to destroy the vessel and kill the crew instead of apprehending them has been described as highly unusual for a drug interdiction operation. “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America”, Trump also posted on social media.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the operation was part of the administration’s plan to go “on offense against drug cartels.” Rubio also pointed out that “these particular drugs were probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean. He also warned that the president is going to be on offense against drug cartels and drug trafficking in the United States”. Last month, the US doubled its reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro to US$50 million. Caracas claims that Washington was building a false drug-trafficking narrative to topple him.

On the contrary, the Venezuelan administration has outrightly repudiated the claim of the United States – stating the images published by them are of Artificial Intelligence. Venezuela’s Communication and Information Minister Freddy Ñáñez on Tuesday accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of using a video generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to fabricate a war narrative. “While I cannot confirm with certainty the exact tools used, several elements suggest that it was generated by AI”, he reiterated.

The video, presented by Rubio as evidence of an attack on a “drug trafficking” vessel, is being called a “deepfake” by the Venezuelan government. According to the Bolivarian regime, technical analysis showed multiple signs of being artificially created, including unrealistic visuals, depicting the explosion as a “simplified, almost cartoonish animation”, with the water effects stylized and unnatural.

In addition, the video contains visual “artifacts” and lacks realistic details, which are common in content created by AI, the Chavista official further argued. The presence of the “UNCLASSIFIED” text and an unknown watermark would also suggest digital manipulation. ”It appears that Marco Rubio continues to lie to his president: after putting him in a dead end, he now presents him with a video with AI (as verified) as ‘evidence. What does AI software – Gemini say about this video“. He further stated that Rubio was ”encouraging war and trying to stain President Donald Trump’s hands with blood“.

Náñez also attached a technical analysis by Gemini saying that it was ”very likely” that the video was generated by an artificial intelligence system. In the Venezuelan Government’s view, this is a dangerous precedent where fabricated evidence could be used to justify military action or sanctions. The Venezuelan official insisted that this type of content, known as deepfake or synthetic video, has become increasingly common in disinformation campaigns, entertainment, or artistic expression.

Team Maverick