The U.S. military on Monday carried out three strikes on four vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean that were allegedly trafficking narcotics, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday.
Hegseth said in a statement on X that the strikes killed 14 “narco-terrorists” and that there was one survivor. Mexican authorities took over responsibility for rescuing the survivor.
Hegseth said that the boats were “operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific” and said they were known to “our intelligence apparatus.”
The defense secretary included a video in his post marked “unclassified” showing boats in the water being hit by the strikes and suddenly on fire.
No additional details about the vessels or the alleged narcotics they were carrying were provided. Hegseth also didn’t share from where the boats originated.
This marked the 11th known time that the Trump administration has launched strikes against alleged drug-carrying boats in recent months, with the most recent one happening Friday in the Caribbean Sea. Later that day, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth had directed that the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which had been stationed in the Mediterranean, move to the Caribbean to support President Donald Trump’s effort to dismantle “Transnational Criminal Organizations” and to “counter narco-terrorism.”
The attacks are an escalation of Trump’s threats to crack down on drug smugglers, even amid bipartisan pushback. Six sources told NBC News earlier this month that members of Congress from both parties have expressed concern that the administration isn’t being transparent enough about the strikes.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine Corps veteran, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the strikes amounted to “murder.”
“If this president feels that they’re doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard,” Gallego said. “If there’s an act of war, then you use our military, and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Sunday accused the administration of violating the Constitution by pursuing military action without congressional approval.
“I’ve been invited to no briefing, but a briefing is not enough to overcome the Constitution,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it.”
Following another set of strikes last week, Trump said that his administration had the legal authority to carry them out and said the operations could eventually expand to targeting drug traffickers on land.
“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “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.”
NBC News reported in late September that U.S. military officials were preparing options to target these traffickers inside Venezuela. Four sources said at the time that those strikes could possibly take place in a matter of weeks.
Gabrielle Khoriaty contributed.
