The US military carried out its ninth strike against an alleged drug-smuggling vessel on Wednesday, destroying the boat and killing three people in the eastern Pacific Ocean, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth announced.
Sharing a video of the strike on social media, Hegseth said the vessel, part of a known narco-trafficking route, was carrying drugs.
Three suspected narco-terrorists were killed in international waters, with no US casualties. It was the second Pacific strike in as many days as part of ongoing US anti-narcotics operations.
"Today, at the direction of President Trump , the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific," Hegseth said through a post on X.
Wednesday’s strike followed one the previous night in the eastern Pacific that killed two people, Hegseth said.
Unlike the seven earlier US attacks concentrated in the Caribbean, the back-to-back strikes mark an expansion of operations into the waters off South America, a key corridor for cocaine shipments from the world’s largest producers. The recent attacks have killed at least 37 people since the campaign began last month.
In his social media posts, Hegseth drew parallels between the Trump administration’s anti-narcotics offensive and the US “war on terror” launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"These strikes will continue, day after day. These are not simply drug runners—these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities. These DTOs are the “Al Qaeda” of our hemisphere and will not escape justice. We will find them and kill them, until the threat to the American people is extinguished," Hegseth said.
Trump has defended the strikes, claiming the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels under the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.
Asked about the latest attack, Trump said, “we have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that,” adding that similar strikes could eventually target land operations.
“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told reporters, as cited by AP. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”
Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns that Trump is ordering these military strikes without congressional authorization or sufficient transparency about the operations.
Sharing a video of the strike on social media, Hegseth said the vessel, part of a known narco-trafficking route, was carrying drugs.
Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 23, 2025
The… pic.twitter.com/PEaKmakivD
Three suspected narco-terrorists were killed in international waters, with no US casualties. It was the second Pacific strike in as many days as part of ongoing US anti-narcotics operations.
"Today, at the direction of President Trump , the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific," Hegseth said through a post on X.
Wednesday’s strike followed one the previous night in the eastern Pacific that killed two people, Hegseth said.
Unlike the seven earlier US attacks concentrated in the Caribbean, the back-to-back strikes mark an expansion of operations into the waters off South America, a key corridor for cocaine shipments from the world’s largest producers. The recent attacks have killed at least 37 people since the campaign began last month.
In his social media posts, Hegseth drew parallels between the Trump administration’s anti-narcotics offensive and the US “war on terror” launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"These strikes will continue, day after day. These are not simply drug runners—these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities. These DTOs are the “Al Qaeda” of our hemisphere and will not escape justice. We will find them and kill them, until the threat to the American people is extinguished," Hegseth said.
Trump has defended the strikes, claiming the US is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels under the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.
Asked about the latest attack, Trump said, “we have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that,” adding that similar strikes could eventually target land operations.
“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told reporters, as cited by AP. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”
Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns that Trump is ordering these military strikes without congressional authorization or sufficient transparency about the operations.
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