Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the military struck a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Eastern Pacific.
It is the eighth strike, but the first one outside of the Caribbean.
Hegseth wrote on X:
Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor 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 or forgiveness—only justice.
Hegseth did not identify the designated terrorist organization in any other post or interview.
However, this strike happened after the military took out a boat associated with Colombia’s National Liberation Army, killing all three men on board.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” Hegseth wrote on X. “There were three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike—which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
Hegseth described cartels as “the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere,” promising to treat them as “the terrorists they are.”
The sixth strike last week left behind two survivors.
That strike began a war of words between President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
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