A U.S. military strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the Caribbean killed six suspected “narco-terrorists,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday, marking the latest escalation in President Donald Trump’s counter-drug campaign across the region.
In a post on X, Hegseth said the overnight strike, the first conducted at night since the campaign began in September, targeted a vessel operated by the Venezuelan-linked Tren de Aragua criminal network.
He shared a 20-second video appearing to show the vessel moving through open water before being struck by a projectile and erupting in flames.
While the Pentagon did not provide evidence of what the vessel was carrying, U.S. officials described the mission as part of a broader crackdown on drug cartels accused of smuggling narcotics into North America and Europe.
President Trump said Thursday that his administration would soon brief Congress on operations against cartels, suggesting that future actions “on land” could follow. “We don’t need a declaration of war to take action,” he said.
The Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. has now conducted ten similar strikes against suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean since September, killing nearly 40 people.
U.S. forces have also deployed guided-missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear-powered submarine, and thousands of troops to the region to support what the administration calls a “counter-narcotics surge.”
Some of the strikes have taken place near Venezuelan waters, raising tensions with Caracas. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused Washington of using the campaign as a pretext to destabilize his government, calling the operations “acts of aggression.”
The U.S. has doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million, alleging his involvement in drug trafficking, charges he denies.
Human rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns over the legality of the strikes, questioning whether they comply with international law and U.S. congressional authorization.
Last week, Reuters reported that two alleged traffickers survived a similar U.S. strike in the Caribbean. They were rescued by an American warship and later repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador.
The Pentagon has not disclosed the precise location of the latest operation but said it remains committed to dismantling “transnational criminal networks threatening U.S. and regional security.”
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
