US Forces Attack 2 Suspected Drug Boats in Eastern Pacific

The new attacks bring the total number of such U.S. strikes to nine.

A screenshot of the moment before a U.S. military strike on a vessel suspected of carrying narcotics through international waters near Venezuela on Oct. 21, 2025. @SecWar/Secretary of War Pete Hegseth via X

U.S. forces carried out another lethal strike against alleged drug traffickers on Wednesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced.

The new lethal strike on a suspected drug trafficking boat operating in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed three people.

In a post about the strike, Hegseth said, “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. 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.”

A video was attached to the post showing the airstrike.

It came after a previous strike on Tuesday in the same region. It brings the total number of U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats to nine.

Hegseth shared details of the Tuesday air strikes in a statement earlier on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, at the direction of President [Donald] Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” Hegseth wrote in an Oct. 22 social media post, which included footage of the attack.

Hegseth said two individuals aboard the vessel, whom he said were narco-terrorists, were killed.

The Oct. 21 strike is at least the eighth time since September that U.S. forces have conducted a lethal attack on a vessel suspected of carrying narcotics.

It is the first in the recent series of U.S. actions that has targeted a suspect vessel in the Pacific Ocean.

“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 said of the latest strike.

Hegseth said U.S. forces had intelligence confirming the vessel targeted on Oct. 21 was indeed involved in narcotics trafficking along a known trafficking route.

Other U.S. strikes since September have targeted vessels operating in the Caribbean Sea. These U.S. strikes coincide with a larger force build-up in the region, and as the Trump administration has raised pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the Trump administration has accused of backing cartels in his country. Maduro has denied the accusations.

Some U.S. lawmakers have raised questions about the legal justifications and intelligence assessments guiding recent U.S. strikes. In turn, the Trump administration notified Congress that U.S. forces are fighting a “non-international armed conflict“ with drug cartels, which the administration referred to as “unlawful combatants.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused U.S. forces of striking an innocent fishing vessel operating in the Caribbean in September.

Writing in an Oct. 18 social media post, Petro said that the vessel, which U.S. forces struck on Sept. 15, was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure. Petro also said the boat was “presumably” operating within Colombia’s territorial waters, and called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the matter.

Trump, in turn, called Petro an “illegal drug leader.” He also announced plans to cut U.S. funding to Colombia and raise tariffs against the South American country.