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Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the U.S. military has carried out another strike in the Eastern Pacific targeting alleged terrorists he says were engaged in narco-trafficking.
Three suspected narco-terrorists were killed, according to Hegseth. The strikes were ordered at the direction of President Donald Trump.
Hegseth said the Pentagon conducted “yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.”
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“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and was carrying narcotics,” he continued. “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.”
This is the ninth vessel strike since September and the second strike reported in the Eastern Pacific. A total of 37 have reportedly been killed while two survived and were later repatriated to their home countries.
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“These strikes will continue, day after day,” Hegseth said on Wednesday. “These are not simply drug runners—these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities. These DTOs are the ‘Al Qaeda’ of our hemisphere and will not escape justice. We will find them and kill them, until the threat to the American people is extinguished.”
The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed or evidence of drugs on board.
The Trump administration has been scrutinized in recent weeks over the strikes, including by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who raised concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people.
In a recent interview, Paul cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded for suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.
The senator has also argued that if the administration plans to engage in a war with Venezuela, as it has targeted boats in recent weeks it claims are transporting drugs for the Venezuela-linked Tren de Aragua gang, it must seek a declaration of war from Congress.
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