Hegseth says 14 people were killed in attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Pacific
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Tuesday that the US military carried out three strikes on Monday on four ships in the eastern Pacific Ocean that were allegedly trafficking drugs.
Hegseth said in Statement on X The raids resulted in the killing of 14 “terrorist drug traffickers” and that there was one survivor. Mexican authorities took responsibility for rescuing the survivor.
Hegseth said the boats were “operated by designated terrorist organizations for drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific” and said they were known “to our intelligence services”.
The Defense Minister included a video clip in his post marked “unclassified” showing boats in the water being hit and suddenly bursting into flames.
No additional details were provided about the ships or the alleged drugs they were carrying. Hegseth also did not share where the boats came from.
This marks the 11th known set of strikes by the Trump administration against alleged drug boats, the most recent being on Friday in the Caribbean Sea. Later that day, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that Hegseth had directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike, which was stationed in the Mediterranean, was sent to the Caribbean to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle “transnational criminal organizations” and “counter narco-terrorism.”
After another set of strikes last week, Trump said his administration had the legal authority to carry them out, and said the operations could eventually expand to include targeting drug traffickers on the ground.
“We will hit them hard when they come overland,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We’re fully prepared to do that. And maybe we’ll go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we get to the ground.”
NBC News reported in late September that US military officials were preparing options to target these smugglers inside Venezuela. Four sources said at the time that those strikes could take place within weeks.