THE world’s largest aircraft carrier has been snapped powering through the Strait of Gibraltar as it heads to join President Trump’s fleet terrorising the Caribbean.
The USS Gerald R. Ford sped past the Rock on Tuesday having spent the previous few days regrouping with its strike group elements in the Mediterranean.
READ MORE: Spanish navy monitors flotilla of Russian ships passing through the Strait of Gibraltar
The carrier, which can hold over 75 aircraft on its 4.5-acre flight deck, is relocating to the Caribbean sea where it will spearhead the United States’ ongoing military campaign against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela.
According to the most recent data available, at least 67 alleged smugglers have been killed in US air strikes on small boats off the Venezuelan coast since early September – although legal experts have warned that such attacks amount to extrajudicial killings.
“We will find and terminate EVERY vessel with the intention of trafficking drugs to America to poison our citizens,” US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said on X after another strike killed two people on Tuesday. “Protecting the homeland is our TOP priority.”
Far-left Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has accused the US of using a new ‘war on drugs’ as a pretext to remove him from power.
But the families of many of the victims killed on board small boats have criticised the US, claiming that their relatives are mostly fishermen, not drug traffickers.
USS Gerald R. Ford was built at a cost of almost €15 billion and was formally delivered to the US Navy in 2017.
The 337-metre long warship, which can travel at speeds in excess of 30 knots, is scheduled to arrive in the Caribbean by mid-November.
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