US Strikes Drug Boat in Caribbean, Killing 3

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said late Saturday that U.S. forces struck an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean and killed three after a string of similar strikes in the region in recent weeks.

“Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Caribbean,” Hegseth said in a post on the social platform X.

“Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters,” Hegseth continued. “All three terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”

Saturday’s strike is the latest in a series of U.S. military efforts targeting alleged narcotrafficking in the Caribbean Sea.

Since early September, the Trump administration has directed the Defense Department to carry out strikes against alleged drug smuggling, killing upwards of 64 people in international waters. There have also been strikes in the East Pacific.

Americans largely oppose these operations. On Thursday, Democratic and Republican lawmakers were given a classified briefing on the strikes. Many left the meeting both irritated and frustrated.

House Armed Services Committee Democrats said they weren’t satisfied by the briefing and that they were unsure on the operations’ legality as well as the administration’s “end game.”

“Our job is to oversee the use of lethal force by our military outside of the United States, and I’m walking away without an understanding of how and why they’re making an assessment that the use of lethal force is adequate here.” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) told reporters in the wake of the briefing.

Hegseth’s Saturday post featured a video of what appeared to be an object moving through water before a bright explosion.

“These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home—and they will not succeed. The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth said in his post. “We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.”