Washington — The U.S. military carried out two lethal strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the eastern Pacific this week, killing all five people aboard the boats, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. The actions mark an expansion of a campaign that, until now, had targeted alleged traffickers exclusively in the Caribbean.
The strikes were the eighth and ninth publicly acknowledged since early September, bringing the total reported death toll to at least 37, according to U.S. officials. No U.S. personnel were injured, Hegseth said.
In a post on X, Hegseth said Tuesday’s strike targeted a vessel “operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” traveling along a known trafficking corridor and “carrying narcotics.” He later announced a second strike on another suspected drug boat Wednesday, also in the eastern Pacific. “Just as al-Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Hegseth wrote, vowing there would be “no refuge or forgiveness—only justice.”
The Pentagon’s language underscores the administration’s effort to frame transnational drug groups as enemy combatants. CNN has reported the existence of a classified legal opinion the administration is using to justify lethal action against a broad, undisclosed list of cartels and suspected traffickers—an approach legal scholars say raises significant due-process and war-powers questions because it allows killings without judicial review or a new authorization from Congress.
Last week, the U.S. struck at least two vessels in the Caribbean. In one case, two survivors were taken aboard a U.S. Navy ship and then repatriated to Ecuador and Colombia rather than detained—highlighting a legal and policy dilemma for the government over its authority to hold such suspects.
The latest operations reflect a widening geographic scope for U.S. kinetic actions against maritime targets. Officials say the campaign aims to disrupt narcotics flows before they approach U.S. shores; critics counter that labeling criminal syndicates as terrorism targets risks escalation and blurs the line between law enforcement and armed conflict.
The Pentagon provided no details on the identities of those killed, the specific organizations involved, or the quantity of narcotics allegedly aboard the Pacific vessels. The Department of Defense referred additional questions to the White House.
