The U.S. military conducted its 30th strike on an alleged drug boat, killing two suspected drug traffickers.
U.S. Southern Command said in a post on X that War Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered the “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel owned by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” on Dec. 29. It attached a video of the strike, showing two sizable munitions detonating above a small vessel, obliterating it and setting the remains on fire.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Two male narco-terrorists were killed. No U.S. military forces were harmed,” SOUTHCOM wrote.
The strike shows the Trump administration isn’t backing down from its aggressive stance against drug trafficking and the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. With the Monday strike, the total death toll in the United States’s campaign against drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific now totals 109.
President Donald Trump began his militarized campaign against drug trafficking and Caracas on Sept. 2. The opening strike was also the most controversial, after a Washington Post report revealed that a follow-up strike had been conducted to kill two survivors of the first strike. The administration has stood by its decision, brushing off criticism as “fake news… delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,” in the words of Hegseth.
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In an interview, Trump said each boat strike saves an average of 25,000 American lives.
The president also said last month that he was considering using lethal force against targets in other countries where the drug trade is active, such as Mexico and Colombia.
