The U.S. military carried out its latest strike on a purported drug cartel vessel in the eastern Pacific on Tuesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday.
The strike, which killed the two people on board, is believed to be the first lethal engagement by U.S. forces in the Pacific, whereas all of the previous strikes have taken place in the Caribbean.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in the strike,” Hegseth said on social media.
This is believed to be the eighth strike the U.S. has carried out on alleged drug smuggling vessels, though the Department of War has not shared proof that these vessels were carrying drugs.
The Trump administration has told Congress the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, arguing that the illicit drugs they smuggle into the country kill tens of thousands of Americans annually and it constitutes an “armed attack.”
Most of the strikes, Hegseth has said, targeted vessels that originated from Venezuela, though a strike late last week targeted the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Colombian terrorist organization.
More than 30 people have been killed in these strikes. Two men survived a U.S. strike last week on a suspected drug-trafficking submersible vessel. The U.S. decided not to hold them and instead repatriated them.
Ecuadoran authorities decided not to press charges against one of the survivors, and the other was returned to his home country of Colombia, where he will be prosecuted.
The U.S. military has a sizable presence in the Caribbean after surging personnel to the region in recent months, while President Donald Trump has authorized CIA operations in Venezuela, both of which raise questions about whether the U.S. could find itself in a hot war in the western hemisphere.
