Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Friday the U.S. military conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a narcotrafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations traveling off the coast of Venezuela, killing four men aboard.
No U.S. forces were harmed in the U.S. Southern Command operation, which was ordered by President Donald Trump, according to Hegseth.
"The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics—headed to America to poison our people," Hegseth wrote in an X post.
Multiple suspected narco-terrorists were killed Friday after a kinetic strike directed by President Donald Trump. (@SecWar via X)
The secretary said military intelligence, "without a doubt," confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narcoterrorists, and they were operating on a known narcotrafficking transit route.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the boat was "loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE."
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he ordered a lethal strike on a vessel linked to a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility on Sept. 19. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
The strike follows a series of hits in September on boats suspected of carrying narcotics along known narcotic trafficking passages.
On Sept. 2, U.S. forces struck a vessel linked to Tren de Aragua in the southern Caribbean, killing 11 suspected gang members.
Subsequent drug-smuggling boat strikes on Sept. 15 and Sept. 19 killed a total of six people, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Video footage showed a vessel shortly before it was destroyed off of Venezuela on Sept. 2, 2025. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
Hegseth noted the strikes will continue "until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!"
The Trump administration in February designated drug cartel groups, including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations.