Did "United States Special Forces" raid a "regime warehouse filled with drug shortage" medicine headed to Ukraine? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories this article "is false." The article is also located on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content.
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on May 14, 2023, titled "Special Forces Raid Regime Warehouse Filled With Drug Shortage Meds Headed to Ukraine" (archived here). It opened:
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem this week signed an executive order to investigate the cause of a nationwide drug shortage that has worsened since the criminal Biden regime stole the 2020 election--White Hats, however, believe they have a clear idea why ill Americans can't find basic drugs like antibiotics: the administration is hoarding stockpiles of medications and sending them overseas to Ukraine.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Special Forces Raid Regime Warehouse Filled With Drug Shortage Meds Headed to Ukraine | Real Raw News
Lead Stories reached out to the Pentagon to ask about the claim. In an email on May 18, 2023, a duty officer responded:
The article is false.
A May 18, 2023, Google News search using the keywords "U.S. Special Forces Raid Regime Warehouse Filled With Drug Shortage Meds Headed to Ukraine" produced no results to substantiate this claim.
Lead Stories also reached out to the U.S. Operations Command Communications Office for a statement concerning this claim and will update this fact check if a response is received.
Real Raw News
Real Raw News is a website that consistently publishes made-up stories about U.S. politics. The well-written English and news-style layout of the website makes it look like a legitimate news source, so it often fools people into believing the stories are real. Screenshots and copies of the stories regularly turn up on other websites or on social media where they are presented as real.
It bills itself as "humor, parody and satire" on the "about" page (archived here):
Disclaimer:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
The same "about" page claims the main author is a man named Michael Baxter. In 2021 a PolitiFact article (archived here) identified the writer as a "Michael Tuffin" in Texas based on records found in a GoFundMe campaign set up to support the site.
NewsGuard, a tool that provides credibility ratings for websites, published a five-page PDF report (archived here) in 2021 describing realrawnews.com as, "An anonymously run website that has published baseless and debunked conspiracies about COVID-19 and U.S. politics." It cautioned that the website severely violates basic journalistic standards."
Lead Stories similarly found the claim U.S. special forces raided the Biden beach house false.
Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.
