Donald Trump’s administration has struck at least two alleged drug-carrying vessels, killing five people on board, in what appears to be the first attacks in the Pacific Ocean.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced two operations Wednesday that bring the death toll from the administration’s attacks to more than 30, as the United States declares itself at war with drug cartels in an expanding military campaign across South America.
A vessel struck down Tuesday “was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics,” according to Hegseth.
Two people were killed in Tuesday’s attack off Colombia’s coast, and another strike Wednesday killed three others, he said.
The latest strikes — believed to be the eighth and ninth attacks since September — raise the death toll from the administration’s attacks to at least 37 people, who Hegseth compared to the terror group behind 9/11.
“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth said Wednesday. “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”
Officials did not immediately identify the groups or country accused of running drugs in the Pacific.
Critics have argued the campaign amounts to illegal extrajudicial killings, while members of Congress and civil rights groups are pressing the administration for evidence and the legal memos shared among White House officials to justify the attacks.
Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 22, 2025
The vessel was known by our intelligence to be… pic.twitter.com/BayDhUZ4Ac
Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 23, 2025
The… pic.twitter.com/PEaKmakivD
Two people who survived a recent strike in the Caribbean were sent to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, after Trump hailed the destruction of a “very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE.”
The apparent repatriation of people labeled “terrorists” by the government — rather than face prosecution in the United States — also raises additional legal questions about the operations, including whether to treat survivors as wartime detainees or transfer them to military or criminal authorities for prosecution.
Ecuadorian officials said there was “no report of a crime” brought against the Ecuadorian survivor, who is not being detained. A Colombian citizen who survived the attack remains hospitalized after his repatriation but is expected to be prosecuted.
Colombia President Gustavo Petro said a U.S. strike in September targeted a civilian boat in distress — not a drug-smuggling vessel — and accused Trump of “murder.”
Trump, on his Truth Social, called Petro “an illegal drug leader” and accused his government of “ripping off” American aid.
The majority of the cocaine smuggled into the United States arrives from the Pacific Ocean, but the Trump administration largely focused its attacks off the coast of Venezuela and the Caribbean in an apparent military-led campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Last week, Trump said he authorized the CIA to perform covert operations inside Venezuela, marking a significant escalation of his aggressive campaign against Maduro’s regime and drug cartels that Trump claims are fueled by Maduro’s government.
Trump told reporters at the White House that he “authorized” CIA operations because Venezuela “emptied their prisons into the United States of America” and flooded the country with drugs.
Last month, the administration declared the United States is formally engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that the president has labeled “unlawful combatants,” according to a confidential notice to members of Congress.
The notice appears to invoke extraordinary wartime powers to justify a series of missile strikes targeting boats off the coast of Venezuela and in the Caribbean.
Trump said defense officials are now “looking at land” strikes in Venezuela.
In January, Trump issued an executive order designating Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, paving the way for his order invoking the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport suspected gang members. Neither the Alien Enemies Act nor “foreign terrorist organization” designations allow for lethal force.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez has accused the Trump administration of trying to “force a regime change” in the country.
“I want to warn the population: we have to prepare ourselves because the irrationality with which the U.S. empire operates is not normal,” Padrino said in televised remarks this month. “It’s anti-political, anti-human, warmongering, rude and vulgar.”
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