Last Tues­day, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro agreed with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that tar­get­ed US strikes on sev­er­al al­leged drug-smug­gling ves­sels off the coast of Venezuela in re­cent weeks have made a “mea­sur­able im­pact” on the lo­cal drug trade, trig­ger­ing a sharp rise in the price of il­lic­it nar­cotics.

Gue­var­ro at­trib­uted the in­crease to drug short­ages in the coun­try.

As of No­vem­ber 13, the US had con­duct­ed 20 strikes on al­leged drug boats in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters, killing at least 80 peo­ple.