U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced today via his X (formerly Twitter) page, that “at the direction of President Trump”, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific”.
He said the attacks killed 14 people and left one survivor. Eight male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessels during the first strike, four during the second, and three during the third.
Regarding the lone survivor, Hegseth said U.S. Southern Command immediately initiated search and rescue protocols, and Mexican authorities accepted responsibility for coordinating the rescue.
Trump confirms three strikes, as U.S. anti-drug campaign ramps up | OilNOW
Hegseth issued a stark warning about the U.S. approach to these organizations: “These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”
Tuesday’s total of 14 deaths was eight more than the U.S. reported in the overnight Caribbean strike on October 24, which killed six people, according to Hegseth.
The strikes are part of a U.S. campaign that began in September and expanded from the Caribbean into the Eastern Pacific. Officials say the operations target vessels the U.S. intelligence community believes are moving narcotics along established trafficking routes.
The campaign has drawn international scrutiny and legal questions about the use of military force instead of law-enforcement interdiction. Critics argue that such lethal actions blur the lines between counterterrorism and counternarcotics policy.
