Another boat carrying suspected drug runners and their payload was blown to smithereens on Friday morning, under orders from President Donald Trump.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted a video of the strike against the suspected “narco-terrorists,” saying that U.S. intelligence “without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics.” It marks the fourth strike ordered by the president against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea.
“Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics – headed to America to poison our people,” said Hegseth. “Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”
Earlier this morning, on President Trump’s orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the… pic.twitter.com/QpNPljFcGn
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 3, 2025
The president deployed troops and military assets to the South Caribbean in August to take on “threats to U.S. national security from specially designated narco-terrorist organizations in the region.” U.S. forces have now killed 21 suspected drug runners in four strikes against suspected “narco-terrorists.”
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The Trump administration told Congress earlier this week that the president has decided the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and that his actions are in self-defense, as Democrats condemn the strikes. A White House spokeswoman told The New York Times that “the president acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has also condemned the U.S. action off his country’s coast, calling the strikes “a military attack on civilians who were not at war and were not militarily threatening any country.” He also accused the Trump administration of “seeking a regime change” in Venezuela. Maduro has a $50 million bounty on his head, which was placed by the U.S. government, citing his alleged ties to transnational gangs and drug cartels.