US strikes kill 14 alleged drug traffickers on vessels

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said 14 drug traffickers were killed and one person survived in US attacks on suspected drug ships in the Eastern Pacific.

In a post on

“The four ships were known to our intelligence apparatus, were passing through known drug smuggling routes and were carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said.

Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the War Department conducted three deadly kinetic attacks on four ships operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTOs) that traffic drugs in the Eastern Pacific. Four ships were known to our intelligence… pic.twitter.com/UhoFlZ3jPG— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 28, 2025

Hegseth posted a roughly 30-second video showing two ships close together in the water before the explosion.

One is visibly loaded with a large amount of packages or packets.

Another part of the video shows a ship moving through the water and then exploding.

The strikes followed at least 10 attacks in the Caribbean and Pacific since early September in a campaign that has increased US tensions with Venezuela and Colombia.

Trump also authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.

The Pentagon has released little information about the attacks, including the amount of drugs the boats allegedly carried and the identities of those killed.

The strikes caused alarm among some lawmakers, who questioned whether they were complying with the laws of war.

Legal experts have questioned why the U.S. military, rather than the Coast Guard, the main U.S. maritime law enforcement agency, carried out the attacks and why other efforts were not made to stop the shipments before resorting to deadly attacks.

The attacks in the Pacific come against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Caribbean that includes guided missile destroyers, F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine and thousands of troops.

The administration has ordered the Ford carrier strike group to the region and is expected to reach the Caribbean in the coming weeks.

with AP