❓WHAT HAPPENED: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a fifth military strike on narco-terrorists near Venezuela.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, U.S. Armed Forces, cartel smugglers.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The strike took place in waters near Venezuela on October 3.
💬KEY QUOTE: “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!” – Pete Hegseth.
🎯IMPACT: The latest strike comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela as the Trump administration declares war on drug cartels.
The U.S. military has killed four men in a strike on a vessel off the coast of Venezuela involved in drug trafficking tied to terrorist networks. In a statement posted October 3 on X, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the targeted vessel was “affiliated with designated terrorist organizations” and was “transporting substantial amounts of narcotics headed to America to poison our people.”
Hegseth said intelligence confirmed the people on board were “narco-terrorists” operating along a known drug trafficking route. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!” he warned.
The strike is the latest in a series of escalating military operations ordered by the Trump administration against cartel threats. So far, U.S. forces have carried out five lethal strikes on boats near Venezuelan waters.
President Donald J. Trump officially informed Congress last week that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with foreign drug cartels, asserting that his administration is acting within its legal authority to eliminate threats to national security. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has strongly backed the campaign, saying of drug traffickers, “What will stop them is when you blow them up. You get rid of them.”
The Venezuelan government has condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty and launched military drills in response. President Nicolás Maduro’s administration conducted a three-day naval and aerial exercise last month near the island of La Orchila, involving drones, warships, and electronic warfare units.
Maduro has also threatened to invoke emergency powers under the Venezuelan constitution and recently signed a decree granting him expanded authority over security and economic infrastructure in the event of a foreign military intervention.
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
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