The US will deploy 10 F-35 fight jets to Puerto Rico as part of its drug cartel fight, sources told The Post Friday — just days after a lethal strike by US forces wiped out nearly a dozen Venezuelan narco-terrorists.
The F-35s — the military’s most advanced fighter jets in service — are due to arrive next week, a source close to the Trump administration said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what physical role the F-35s would play, but sending the highly advanced aircraft to the US territory will at least serve as a show of force to deter drug traffickers.
President Trump also threatened to shoot down Venezuelan military planes after two F-16s recently flew over the USS Jason Dunham guided missile destroyer.
“I don’t want to talk about that, but if they do put us in a dangerous position, they’ll be shot down,” Trump said Friday after the threatening demonstration.
Designed to fight America’s fiercest adversaries with advanced stealth capabilities, the jets are even capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
The deployment will boost the US military’s presence growing presence in the southern Caribbean region and come as part of Trump’s vow to crack down on designated narco-terrorist organizations.
The military has deployed at least eight warships to Central America in recent weeks as the president cracks down on narcoterrorists.
The development comes just days after Trump revealed the US military had killed 11 people in a “drug-carrying boat” off the coast of Venezuela.
Trump insisted those obliterated in the strike were members of the notorious Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
“TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of [Venezuelan President] Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere,” Trump said in Truth Social post shortly after the attack.
The Justice Department last month placed a $50 million bounty on Madura’s head, seeking his arrest after he was indicted on drug charges by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York.
“Let there be no doubt — he, Nicolás Maduro, is an indicted drug trafficker in the United States, and he’s a fugitive of American justice,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Friday.
The US views Maduro as the illegitimate leader of Venezuela after stealing the past two elections.
“He is a fugitive of U.S. justice. He’s not the legitimate leader of Venezuela. We never recognized him,” Rubio said. “He is an indicted fugitive causing trouble in the region.”
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