The Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem is catching serious heat after it tried—and spectacularly failed—to justify a deadly U.S. boat strike by posting a completely unrelated drug bust photo from Spain.
In a now-deleted post on X, DHS News attempted to discredit Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who had accused the U.S. of killing a poor fisherman during one of its recent naval attacks in the Caribbean. The department fired back with a picture it claimed showed the “narco boat” in question—except it wasn’t even from the same hemisphere.
“Colombian President claims one of the Narco boats destroyed by the US Naval Task Force was ‘just a poor Colombian fisherman’. Does this look like a fishing boat? It looks like he had tons of bait (cocaine, attracts lots of fish). Colombian president is a liar!!” the DHS account posted.
Almost immediately, social media users pointed out that the image was actually from a 2024 drug bust off the coast of southern Spain, roughly 1,000 kilometers south of the Canary Islands—nowhere near the Caribbean, and with zero connection to the incident in question.
The backlash was swift and brutal.
“Photo is from a drug bust in Southern Spain from over a year ago. If you are going to fucking lie at least do so convincingly,” wrote user @CmdrSeawolf, sharing the original source from El País, a major Spanish newspaper.
“You F*cking Liars!! A drug bust in Spain months ago!” posted another user, Susan Heatherly.
Investigative journalist Julie K. Brown weighed in: “It’s incredible that the internet has to issue corrections for the US Department of Homeland Security. This is not the boat that was destroyed by the Navy.”
X added a community note under the post to set the record straight: “This photo is from a drug bust that occurred in 2024, zero ties to the current situation. Photo is taken from the video attached in the article below.”
At the heart of the firestorm is an increasingly controversial U.S. campaign of military strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean. At least six known attacks have taken place, with 29 people reportedly dead. One of those killed was labeled an “innocent fisherman” by Colombian President Petro—who has now become the first world leader to call for a criminal investigation into the U.S. strikes.
Instead of addressing the allegation head-on, DHS went for a cheap internet meme—and got caught red-handed.
“They lie so brazenly that it is still shocking to me,” said political commentator Krystal Ball.
This isn’t the first time the Trump administration—and now, Kristi Noem’s DHS—has been accused of pushing misleading or outright false visuals to justify military actions. But this latest stunt, dragging an old Spanish drug bust photo into a deadly Caribbean operation, seems to have blown the lid off.
At this point, the scandal isn’t just about one lie. It’s about a growing sense that DHS—under Noem’s leadership—is willing to weaponize misinformation to silence international criticism and justify deadly force.
