Two Venezuelan military aircraft buzzed a US Navy destroyer in the Caribbean on Thursday, in what the Pentagon called a “highly provocative” attempt to interfere with counter-drug operations.

The incident comes just 48 hours after US forces attacked a Tren de Aragua narco-smuggling boat in the region, killing 11 militants tied to Venezuela’s most powerful cartel.

“Today, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a US Navy vessel in international waters,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations. The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the US military.”

According to CBS News, the aircraft involved were armed F-16 fighter jets. The vessel they harassed was the USS Jason Dunham, an Aegis-class guided-missile destroyer. The Navy dispatched at least eight ships to the Caribbean last month — including three guided-missile destroyers — as part of a broader mission to dismantle narcotics networks flooding the US with fentanyl-laced drugs.

The Pentagon has not released additional details on Thursday’s incident.

The flare-up marks the latest confrontation between Washington and Caracas. Earlier this year, the Trump administration formally designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Cartel de Los Soles as foreign terrorist organizations, accusing President Nicolás Maduro of enabling their trafficking operations.

The Justice Department last month placed a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head, with Attorney General Pam Bondi calling him “one of the largest narco traffickers in the world, and a threat to our national security.”

Maduro has lashed out at the naval buildup, denouncing the US mission as “the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years” and accusing Washington of plotting regime change.

With US warships and Venezuelan fighter jets now confronting each other over disputed waters and drug-smuggling routes, tensions in the Caribbean are escalating into one of the most dangerous flashpoints of Trump’s second term.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)