Pentagon Chief Confirms US Military Strike on Another Drug-Smuggling Vessel, Killing 3

The vessel was ’transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,' Hegseth said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the 250th anniversary celebration of the United States Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California, U.S., October 18, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

The U.S. military struck a drug-smuggling vessel on Oct. 17 and killed three occupants, U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed in a post on Oct. 19, saying that the boat was connected to a guerrilla group based in Colombia.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” he wrote in a post on X. A video of the strike was included in the post.

He added that that “three male narco-terrorists” were on board the vessel during the airstrike, which was carried out in international waters. All three individuals on the vessel were killed, while no American forces were harmed, the secretary said.

“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth continued. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”

The Oct. 19 announcement makes it the seventh known attack on a drug-smuggling vessel in a series of military actions since September. Earlier this year, the Trump administration issued several orders declaring multiple Mexican drug cartels, transnational gangs, and other criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations.

On Oct. 15, U.S. President Donald Trump also confirmed that he authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela and also has been signaling that he would be weighing more actions against the country’s socialist regime, headed by Nicolas Maduro.

Trump also has sent warnings to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, announcing on Oct. 19 that he would be canceling U.S. aid to Colombia and described Petro as an “illegal drug leader.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that Petro, a former Marxist guerrilla, is currently “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields” across the Latin American country.

“Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” Trump wrote.

The post came after Petro wrote on Oct. 18 that the U.S. military “committed a murder” and violated Colombia’s sovereignty after an airstrike against a boat that U.S. officials said was smuggling drugs during an incident in September.

“The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure. We await explanations from the US government,” Petro said, according to a translation provided by the X chatbot Grok.

Maduro’s regime, which has also been accused of smuggling drugs into the United States, has echoed criticism of the strikes, and Venezuelan officials earlier this month asked the U.N. Security Council to weigh in on whether the U.S. military actions were justified.

Airstrikes on vessels in the Caribbean have also drawn criticism from some Democratic lawmakers. On Oct. 19, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) told CBS News that the administration’s rationale in carrying out the strikes “had a tremendous number of holes in it.”

In September, the Trump administration accused Colombia of failing to cooperate in the drug war, although at the time Washington issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered aid cuts. Colombia is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, and the cultivation of the critical ingredient of coca leaves reached an all-time high last year, according to the United Nations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.