The U.S. military launched a strike on Wednesday in the eastern Pacific that targeted and killed three people on a vessel it claimed was engaged in smuggling narcotics, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced. The operation, Hegseth added, was endorsed by President Donald Trump and struck what the administration described as a vessel operated by a “Designated Terrorist Organization.”.
Hegseth posted a message on social media in which he said that intelligence suggested the vessel was sailing on a notorious narco-trafficking route and was carrying contraband drugs. He called the victims “narco-terrorists” and vowed that this type of attack would occur “day after day,” labeling the groups the “Al Qaeda of our hemisphere.”
Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the attack, which was carried out in international waters. Three terrorists died and no U.S. personnel were harmed in this attack,” Hegseth said.
The move is an extension of the administration’s recent string of lethal bombardments against suspected drug-trafficking vessels, which previously had been concentrated in the Caribbean. Authorities signalled that the step broadens operations into the Pacific, a prime conduit for cocaine being transported north from South America.
The White House and the Pentagon have made very little public disclosure regarding the evidence on which targets have been classified as terrorist groups or for which lethal force at sea is permissible. Legal officials and critics have questioned why the military, and not naval law-enforcement agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard, are making these attacks, and whether the administration has any legal authority to carry out such attacks with fewer disclosures.
Regional governments and rights groups have also protested the possibility of civilian deaths and diplomatic fallout. The government has already asserted that some groups with drug trafficking connections are among those that fit into its criterion for foreign terrorist organization designation; in officials’ view, that designation justifies the employment of military force.
Details like where the strike was conducted and the victim’s and assailant’s nationality and the type of U.S. assets used were not disclosed in Hegseth’s blog or accompanying public statements. Officials did confirm that the operation was conducted in international waters.
This strike is the sixth in a series of attacks the administration says are designed to stop the importation of drugs into the United States. Opponents caution the campaign may continue violence on the high seas and push legal precedent for the use of military force against cross-border criminal networks. Defenders argue strong action is necessary to reduce cartel power and protect American communities from drug abuse.
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