Dilemma On The High Seas

By Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

Suppose you, as the captain of a U.S. Navy Destroyer stationed in the Caribbean Sea, receive a report of a small boat that is reportedly carrying drugs—-aka a “drug boat”—-racing on a known drug route from Venezuela to the United States.

What would you do?

Should you follow your commander-in-chief’s, the President of the United States, authorization to take the necessary force to prevent the drugs from harming Americans, or the warnings of the senators from Arizona?

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D, AZ) threatened that when the Democrats return to power they might prosecute you for following the order of the President of the U.S.

U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D, AZ) said that if you blow the drug boats up it will be considered “sanctioned murder,” before adding “If this president feels that they’re [Venezuela] doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard.”

Coast Guard

It’s impossible for the U.S. Coast Guard, or any other organization, to effectively patrol the estimated 8,436 miles of Florida coastline in addition to the estimated 1,359 miles of barrier islands.

Having had the pleasure of driving the beautiful 120-125 miles from Miami to the end of the Florida Keys, which is Key West, I can certify that there are an almost infinite number of places for a small boat to drop off drugs.

My experiences in Miami harbor, which is a large, active, deep-water port, illustrates how difficult, perhaps even impossible, it is to prevent the importation of drugs once they arrive at the harbor. My assignment was to board a tugboat in Miami’s Harbor, where an estimated 70% of the cocaine in the U.S. was headed for and advise the crew of a Belcher tugboat of the company’s drug policy.

To their credit, the crew pretty much kept straight faces when told that their use of drugs was prohibited. However, when I advised them of their duty to report others of smuggling drugs into the U.S., the crew erupted. One crew member said, “We often see the large boats unload drugs onto small boats before the Coast Guard can inspect them.” Another said the drugs are sometimes dropped into the water before the vessels can be inspected, and later picked up by small boats. They all agreed that reporting drug dealers would put them, and their families, in harm’s way.

The closer drug boats get to Florida the more difficult it becomes to stop the drug problems they cause.

Drug Problems

In 2023, an estimated 105,000 persons in the U.S. died from drug overdose out of an estimated 48 million users of illegal drugs, many of whom commit crimes to support their habits.

It is estimated that Venezuelan cartels export 500 tons of cocaine annually to the U.S. and Europe.

Stop the Boats?

As the captain of a destroyer with the top speed being about 35 mph, you know you cannot catch drug boats, which are like Cigarette Boats, with top speeds of 95-135 mph. Cigarette Boats were named because of their long slender design, and because of their association with smuggling illicit goods such as cigarettes, liquor, and drugs.

Blow Them Up?

Senator Gallego said blowing up drug boats would be “sanctioned murder,” for which Senator Kelly said Democrats might prosecute you.

However, Senator Lindsey Graham (R, S.C.), a former Judge Advocate Corp (JAC) attorney, responded “To say that we’re engaging in murder is just such an outrage.”

Senator Graham continued “The president of the United States, as Commander in Chief, has the authority to do these strikes. Nobody accused Bush of committing murder when he invaded Panama to take down Noriega.

“Nobody accused Reagan of murder when he went into Grenada to stop Cuban influence growing in Grenada, threatening our backyard, so the president has history on his side, he has the Constitution on his side,” Senator Graham added during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday October 25, 2025.

Act of War?

As captain, would you believe Senator Gallego who said “If there’s an act of war, then you use our military, and then you come and talk to us (Congress) first. But… this is sanctioned murder.”?

Or would you believe Senator Graham who responded to Senator Gallego by saying “Congress has declared war five times in 250 years, so when I hear that the military can’t be used by the commander in chief, unless Congress declares war, it just shows me how ignorant these people are?”

Senator Graham continued, “Congress is the only entity to put us in a state of war. But since the War Powers Act of 1973, commanders in chief have used military actions 130 times without any congressional input.”

“I would add that Democratic Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops into Vietnam without ever asking Congress to declare war.”

A Nobel Peace Prize Winner a Terrorist?

Maria Bartiromo of Fox News said to Maria Machado, “Thanks so much for being here and congratulations on the Nobel Peace Prize. I want to get your take on these boats blowing up. The U.S. is meeting these boats with fire. Do you believe that Maduro is running the Venezuelan end of this?”

“Absolutely. Everybody knows Maduro is the head of the biggest cartel, drug cartel, Cartel of the Sons, also the head of the Tren de Aragua,” Corina Machado explained.

“The only way to dismantle a criminal structure is to cut their inflows of criminal money. You have to cut the resources that come from drug trafficking, gold smuggling, arms smuggling, even human trafficking.”

“He has applied state terrorism inside towards our people and narco terrorism abroad to the nations of the western hemisphere. I am hiding because Madero has declared me a ‘terrorist’.”

Is there a better summary of Madero’s policies than his declaring the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize a terrorist?

Why These Boats?

U.S. intelligence has identified these boats as carrying drugs and the explosions have indicated that drugs were on board. Indeed, the photos that have been shown on TV destroy any allegations that these boats are fishing boats or any other type of boats besides drug boats.

President Donald Trump has authorized the U.S. Navy, in addition to the Coast Guard and other U.S. forces, to use the necessary force to stop suspected drug trafficking boats that allegedly contain narco-terrorists, including Tren de Aragua gang members.

Pacific Ocean

In response to the intelligence that the majority of drugs entering the U.S. are through California, on October 28, 2025, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. military had killed 14 alleged narco-terrorists in a series of strikes against four vessels on known narco-trafficking routes that were carrying narcotic drugs in the Eastern Pacific.

“All strikes were in international waters with no U.S. forces harmed,” Hegseth added, noting that President Donald Trump ordered the strikes targeting “Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific.”

Your Order?

In our hypothetical, your choices as the captain of a U.S. destroyer, either in the Caribbean Sea or the Pacific Ocean, are to:

1. follow the orders of your Commander-in-Chief and destroy the drug boats and protect the American people, or

2. follow the threats of the Arizona senators and ignore the drug boats and protect yourself from the threats of the senators.

Which do you choose?

Community Calendar:

Got a Santa Barbara event for our community calendar? Fenkner@sbcurrent.com