On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. military conducted a strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that was allegedly involved in drug trafficking. This operation marks at least the third such strike this week alone, highlighting the U.S. government's aggressive stance against narcotics smuggling.
According to Hegseth, the vessel targeted was known to be engaged in illicit narcotics smuggling and was navigating a recognized narco-trafficking route. “Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night,” Hegseth stated in a post on X. All six individuals on board were killed, and notably, no U.S. forces were harmed during this military action.
The vessel was reportedly affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang, an organization designated as a terrorist group by the Trump administration. Earlier this week, Hegseth revealed that a similar operation had occurred in the eastern Pacific Ocean, where three male narco-terrorists were also killed. In his commentary, he drew parallels between these drug traffickers and the terrorist group Al Qaeda.
The U.S. military has conducted a total of ten strikes against drug-carrying boats since early September, resulting in the deaths of 43 individuals associated with narcotics trafficking. Out of these operations, eight occurred in the Caribbean Sea, while the remaining two were executed in the Eastern Pacific.
Former President Donald Trump has expressed strong support for these strikes, asserting that every vessel taken out of operation could potentially save thousands of American lives. “Every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives,” Trump remarked during a recent press conference at the White House.
While these military operations target drug trafficking at sea, experts note that the primary method of smuggling fentanyl—a synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of deaths annually in the United States—occurs largely overland, often through legal ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. Reports from the bipartisan Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking support this assertion, indicating that fentanyl is often transported in small, hard-to-detect amounts.
During a recent roundtable discussion at the White House, both Trump and Hegseth highlighted the success of the military strikes and indicated more actions are planned. Hegseth emphasized the U.S. commitment to dismantling drug trafficking networks: “We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” he declared.
Trump also elaborated on the rationale behind these strikes, stating that merely capturing drug traffickers and seizing their products had proven ineffective. “We’ve been capturing these boats for years, and they get back into the system, they do it again and again and again,” he explained. “They don’t fear that.”
When questioned about whether he would seek Congressional approval for a formal declaration of war to authorize ongoing strikes against drug trafficking vessels, Trump declined, stating, “I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.” He reiterated this stance emphatically, saying, “We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead.”
Reducing drug smuggling and addressing the fentanyl crisis has been a significant focus for Trump, reflecting a core promise from his campaign. He has also pledged to enhance immigration enforcement, particularly targeting what he describes as the worst offenders among undocumented migrants in the U.S.
