Increasingly combative on drug and weapons smuggling across borders, Trinidad’s government has said it will not invest or waste any state resources to recover the bodies of crew members from a Venezuelan cocaine smuggling vessel that the US military destroyed on the high seas last week.

Responding to calls from Colombian President Gustavo Petro for help in recovering the bodies of any of the 11 crew members if they washed ashore near Trinidad, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar remains adamant that the coast guard and other state agencies are to concentrate more on securing the borders than on recovering the bodies of those bringing drugs to destroy lives and fuel felony crimes.

So far, two bodies have washed ashore on the island’s northern coastline, and more are expected in the coming days. She said that if any bodies are washed up, these would be recovered, but state resources would not be used actually to search for them.

Responding to queries from the three leading newspapers by WhatsApp messages, the prime minister said narcotic smuggling has destroyed the lives of many in the twin island republic, with Tobago.

“Our coast guard resources will be utilized for the protection of our borders, not to look for dead drug traffickers. The drugs on that boat bring death to persons here, destroy families and careers, and fracture our society. Those drugs bring more death and despair than conventional weapons. We are in a war against drugs and trafficking. There will be consequences. I much prefer seeing drug and gun traffickers blown to pieces than seeing hundreds of our citizens murdered each year because of drug-fueled gang violence,” she told the Newsday newspaper.

Ever since the Trump administration announced plans to barricade the Venezuelan coast with military vessels to allegedly combat drug trafficking, PM Persad Bissessar has been loud and clear in her praise for the move, saying the US should “kill all of them violently” as they bring death and destruction to receiving destinations.

She has already offered the US military the country as a launching pad if Venezuela ever dares to attack fellow CARICOM member nation and neighbor Guyana, with which it has a decades-old border dispute. Venezuela has threatened to militarily annex the region to enforce its claim that Guyana’s western Essequibo region encompasses two-thirds of Guyana’s territory. The prime minister’s posture on Venezuela and its ongoing troubles with the US has triggered stinging criticism from political analysts and opposition parties, with some arguing that the cabinet is placing the small republic unnecessarily in the middle of superpower politics.

The PM also announced plans to summarily deport more than 200 Venezuelan criminal suspects and convicts in state prisons in the coming days, telling the Guardian newspaper that “our migrant policy is in train, and this will help to reduce illegal immigration and trafficking. However, it will not be lenient to those here illegally and cannot provide verifiable information on how they have been earning a living.”