❓WHAT HAPPENED: The U.S. has conducted three strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats, killing at least 14 people and leaving one survivor.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: U.S. military forces, with War Secretary Pete Hegseth providing details.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The strikes occurred on Monday in the Pacific Ocean.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The U.S. military struck four vessels in known narco-trafficking routes,” said War Secretary Hegseth.
🎯IMPACT: The strikes bring the total death toll in the U.S. campaign against drug cartels to over 50.
The U.S. military conducted three additional strikes on drug‑smuggling vessels on Monday, killing at least 14 people and leaving only one survivor. War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strikes targeted four boats in the Pacific Ocean, part of a broader campaign against narcotics trafficking. The latest operations bring the total death toll in the U.S. campaign against drug cartels to over 50.
Hegseth confirmed that since early September, the administration has carried out 13 strikes on 14 vessels along known narco‑trafficking routes. The Trump administration has declared an armed conflict with the cartels, labeling them “unlawful combatants” and citing the defense of the homeland as justification for the operations.
POTUS: “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them. You know? They’re going to be, like dead.” pic.twitter.com/47f0bJBonu
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 23, 2025
The campaign began with a series of targeted strikes on narco‑trafficking boats in the Caribbean and off the coast of Venezuela. On September 2, a U.S. strike killed 11 narco-terrorists aboard a Venezuelan vessel identified as members of the Tren de Aragua crime syndicate. In mid-September, another strike reportedly killed three people on a boat transporting narcotics in international waters. On October 3, Hegseth announced a strike off Venezuela that killed four. In late October, the campaign expanded into the Pacific, where two strikes killed five people near Marxist-led Colombia, opening a new front beyond the Caribbean.
The administration has so far maintained that all targets were confirmed as part of organized narcotics operations and that the use of lethal force was lawful under U.S. and international law.
Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific.
The four vessels were known by our intelligence… pic.twitter.com/UhoFlZ3jPG
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 28, 2025
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