Johnson calls drug smugglers 'clear and present danger'

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(The Center Square) – Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday drug smugglers off the coast of Venezuela pose a "clear and present danger" to the U.S. after a confidential briefing on Capitol Hill.

Johnson, R-La., defended the military strikes against suspected drug traffickers. He said drug overdoses were responsible for more deaths than all recent wars. 

"Over the last four years alone, America has lost more lives to drug overdoses and other drug related deaths than we did to the enemy actions in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined," Johnson said. "This is a serious problem that a serious administration is addressing."

Johnson spoke to reporters Tuesday after a confidential briefing from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

The House Speaker's remarks came after U.S. Southern Command reported three additional military strikes on suspected drug boats on Monday. The three strikes killed eight people. Since June, the military has reported 25 strikes that have killed at least 94 people.

Johnson compared Trump's military actions to President Barrack Obama's strikes against overseas terrorists during his time in the White House. He said that Obama carried out more than 500 drone strikes that killed more than 3,700 people, including American citizens, from 2009 to 2015.

Democrats, a few Republicans, and human rights groups have criticized the strikes.

Trump says the strategy is working and saving lives. The U.S. president said each sunken boat has saved 25,000 American lives from overdoses.

The strikes come amid a pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who has controlled the South American nation since 2013.

International election observers have accused Maduo of consolidating power through fraudulent elections. In 2024, his reelection was widely condemned as illegitimate, with allegations of vote tampering and intimidation of opposition leaders. Maduro is also facing allegations of human rights abuses, corruption, and involvement in illegal drug trafficking. U.S. prosecutors have charged Maduro with running a drug cartel using cocaine trafficking as a tool to run the regime and put a $50 million bounty on information leading to his arrest. Almost eight million people, more than a quarter of the population, have left Venezuela in recent years.

While U.S. officials have not publicly released detailed reports about the strikes, the boats appear to be smuggling cocaine.

Trump has focused his war on drugs against fentanyl, a powerful and deadly synthetic opioid. U.S. health officials have reported that synthetic opioids are the leading cause of overdose deaths in the U.S.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported provisional data found about 87,000 drug overdose deaths from October 2023 to September 2024. That's down from about 114,000 the previous year and the lowest since 2020.

On Monday, Trump issued an executive order designating illicit fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.