The United States military has executed another operation targeting a suspected drug-smuggling vessel, this time in the Eastern Pacific. This development was reported by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Wednesday.
The operation, which took place on Tuesday, marks the eighth such strike orchestrated under the Trump administration, with the earlier seven occurring in the Caribbean region.
“Under the direction of President Trump, the Department of War launched a decisive kinetic strike against a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” Hegseth stated. “Our intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illegal drug smuggling, navigating a well-known trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.”
Hegseth further explained that the strike took place in international waters and targeted a boat with two individuals aboard identified as narco-terrorists. Both were killed in the operation, while no U.S. personnel were injured.
Images released show the suspected drug-smuggling vessel just before its destruction by U.S. forces on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. (X.com/SecWar)
Earlier this week, Hegseth announced that three alleged narco-terrorists were killed in a U.S. strike on a drug smuggling vessel affiliated with Colombia’s National Liberation Army.
That “lethal kinetic strike” happened Friday in international waters at the direction of President Donald Trump, Hegseth wrote in a post on X.
“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. “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,” he added.
The suspect drug smuggling vessel is shown at left, moments before it was destroyed in a U.S. strike on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (X.com/SecWar)
Colombia’s Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) is a designated terrorist organization. Hegseth likened the Colombian rebel group to the al Qaeda terror group founded by Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The death toll from the Trump administration’s military campaign against suspected drug-smuggling vessels is at least 34. The operations began last month and are part of Trump’s broader effort to dismantle transnational cartels by force.
Last Thursday, the U.S. military carried out a strike on what Trump later called a “very large drug-carrying submarine” in the Caribbean, killing two suspected narco-terrorists and capturing two others alive.
The U.S. killed six alleged drug traffickers on a boat in international waters near Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced Oct. 14, 2025. (realDonaldTrump/Truth Social)
A separate strike on Tuesday killed six suspected smugglers aboard a vessel off the coast of Venezuela.
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