Pete Hegseth’s bomb-first, question-later approach to alleged narcoterrorists is reportedly helping those same terrorists get off scot-free.
A Hegseth-directed bombing on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Ecuador destroyed the evidence that was crucial to the prosecution of the survivors, according to a damning Washington Post report.
Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila, a 42-year-old Ecuadorian native with a drug-trafficking record, was one of two survivors of an Oct. 16 U.S. strike on a submarine that the Pentagon alleges was carrying drugs overseas. Two others were killed in the strike, and the fourth was extradited to Colombia.
The U.S. military captured Chila, then sent him back to Ecuador to be prosecuted. However, the U.S. provided the Ecuadorian government with no evidence that could lead to Chila’s arrest. Any evidence proving that Chila was committing a crime on that boat, such as seized drugs, GPS records, or cell phones, was blasted to the bottom of the sea.
The Ecuadorian government was forced to let Chila go, according to the Washington Post.
The failure to even apprehend an alleged narcoterrorist is at extreme odds with the 45-year-old Defense Secretary’s tough-on-narcoterrorism rhetoric.
“If these people were drug traffickers and deserving of death, how is it that you would pick them up and just let them go?” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a member of the House intelligence and foreign affairs committees, told the Post.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We have consistently said that our intelligence did indeed confirm these boats were trafficking narcotics destined for America. That same intelligence also confirms that the individuals involved in these drug operations are/were narco-terrorists, and we stand by that assessment,” the Pentagon stated in a statement to The Post.
Hegseth has staked his reputation and potentially his job on the effectiveness of the boat strikes. Hegseth recently landed in hot water for an alleged “kill them all” order on a Venezuelan drug boat, killing survivors of an initial September 2 strike that critics have labeled a potential war crime.
When reports of the order surfaced in late November, Hegseth boasted, “Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.”
The “double tap” incident was Hegseth’s most serious controversy in a year full of embarrassments, leading to speculation he would soon face the axe.
President Trump, 79, dumped responsibility for the attack on Hegseth, saying, “I didn’t know about the second strike. I didn’t know anything about people. I wasn’t involved.” However, he has also vocally supported Hegseth through the ordeal.
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