Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Sunday they recovered part of a cocaine shipment from a speedboat destroyed recently by the U.S. Navy.
At a press conference, the Dominican Republic’s National Directorate for Drug Control said it confiscated 377 packages of cocaine from the vessel, which was allegedly carrying 1,000 kilograms.
Officials said the speedboat was destroyed about 80 nautical miles south of Isla Beata, a small island belonging to the Dominican Republic.
They said the country’s navy worked with U.S. forces to locate the boat, which was allegedly attempting to dock in the Dominican Republic and use the nation as a “bridge” to move cocaine into the United States.
“This is the first time in history that the United States and the Dominican Republic carry out a joint operation against narco terrorism in the Caribbean,” the directorate said in a statement.
In August, the U.S. deployed eight warships and a submarine to the southern Caribbean for what the Trump administration described as a mission to combat drug trafficking.
The White House says the flotilla has so far destroyed three drug-carrying speedboats in separate strikes, which it says killed more than a dozen people aboard.
The Trump administration has said at least two of the destroyed boats departed from Venezuela, whose president Nicolás Maduro is described by U.S. officials as a drug trafficker and leader of the Cartel of the Suns.
Maduro denies the allegations and has called the U.S. naval buildup in the Caribbean an attack on his country.
President Donald Trump has ordered strikes on several boats this month as he seeks to crackdown on drug trafficking to the U.S.
“IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!” the commander in chief warned last week in a Truth Social post about one of the strikes.
More over at The New York Post:
Dominican Republic says it seized 377 packages of cocaine on speedboat destroyed by US Navy https://t.co/53lKRJM2vB pic.twitter.com/LU6PTH1ibh
— New York Post (@nypost) September 22, 2025