This is the eighth American attack on a boat carrying illegal goods since September 2, 2025, but the first in Pacific waters, CBS reported.
"Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the War Department conducted a deadly kinetic attack on a ship belonging to a designated terrorist organization engaged in drug smuggling in the eastern Pacific," Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on X.
The Secretary of War added that the ship was traveling on a transit route and was carrying illegal substances."During the attack, conducted in international waters, two drug terrorists were on board the ship. Both terrorists were killed, and no American forces were harmed in the attack," Hegseth wrote.
"The narco-terrorists who intend to bring poison to our shores will find no safe haven anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as al-Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge, no forgiveness – only justice," he declared.
Since September, at least 34 people have been killed in US attacks on boats carrying illegal substances. The Trump administration has told Congress that the United States is in a"non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, arguing that the goods they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans each year and that this constitutes an"armed attack."
The US is fighting cartels. Trump authorized the CIA.
Two men survived a US submarine attack last week. The United States deported one Ecuadorian and one Colombian as a result. The Ecuadorian was released after authorities said they found no evidence of wrongdoing.
The Colombian remains hospitalized. Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said he"arrived with a brain injury, sedated, and breathing on a respirator." Local authorities announced he would face charges.
The United States is expanding its military presence in the Caribbean with guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine, and deploying some 6,500 troops. Trump admitted that he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
