The U.S. carried out two more strikes on alleged drug vessels this week—this time on the Pacific side of Latin America—killing five people and marking a major expansion of the Trump administration’s anti-narcotics campaign. No U.S. personnel were injured in either operation, officials confirmed.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that the military conducted the lethal strikes on two consecutive days against the boats in the eastern Pacific — the eighth and ninth known strikes by the US military on alleged drug-smuggling vessels since the start of September — with all seven previous strikes targeting boats in the Caribbean Sea. The first strike occurred Tuesday in international waters off Colombia, killing two people. A second, in the eastern Pacific on Wednesday, left three more dead. At least 37 people in total have been killed in the nine strikes.
Hegseth said on X Wednesday, noting a Tuesday strike in the Pacific had killed both people on board, that “Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere.” Hegseth said the boat in that strike was “being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization(s) and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific. … Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”
Hegseth later said the US conducted a lethal strike on a second suspected drug boat in the eastern Pacific, killing all three people on board: “Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO),” Hegseth wrote on X.
At a White House briefing on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said the administration is preparing to take the fight beyond the seas: “They had one today in the Pacific, and the way I look at it — every time I look — because it is violent and it is very — it’s amazing, the weaponry, you know they have these boats that go 45 to 50 miles an hour in the water, and when you look at the accuracy and the power — look, we have the greatest military in the world.” Trump added that the naval operations have disrupted maritime smuggling routes and forced traffickers to move shipments inland.
Trump also indicated that future U.S. action could include strikes on land targets: “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land. They haven’t experienced that yet, but now we are totally prepared to do that,” while emphasizing that while he would “probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we are doing,” he believes such approval is not legally required.
While the administration has labeled the targeted cartels as “terrorist organizations,” that classification has drawn backlash from critics who are pressing for more transparency—and a clearer legal justification—before the campaign moves to land-based targets.
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