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Three people were killed during the latest airstrike carried out by the United States military targeting an alleged drug boat, which took place in the Caribbean on Saturday (November 1), Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed in a post shared on his X account.
"Today, at the direction of President [Donald] Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Caribbean," Hegseth wrote on his 'Secretary of War' account, along with an 'unclassified' video. "This vessel—like EVERY OTHER—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home—and they will not succeed. The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them."
The strike was the latest among at least 15 carried out by the United States military targeting alleged drug boats in the Pacific and Caribbean since September 2, which has totaled at least 63 deaths. On Wednesday (October 29), Hegseth announced that four people were killed during an airstrike in the Eastern Pacific, which took place two days after 14 people were killed during an airstrike against four alleged drug vessels in the same region.
The strikes have come amid heightened tension between the Trump administration and the governments of Colombia and Venezuela.