The United States military has conducted a second airstrike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Pacific Ocean, killing three people, as Washington expands its campaign against maritime narcotics smuggling.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike on Wednesday, saying no US personnel were harmed. The attack came just one day after American forces hit another suspected drug boat in the same region, which killed two people.
According to Hegseth, both vessels were traveling along known drug-trafficking routes in international waters. “At the direction of President Donald Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” Hegseth posted on X.
“These strikes will continue, day after day.
These are not simply drug runners these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities,” he said.
A video released alongside his statement appeared to show a small boat erupting in flames following a US airstrike. Debris and floating objects could then be seen in the water before being struck again in what appeared to be a secondary strike.
Hegseth said the latest actions marked the eighth and ninth strikes on suspected narco-boats since September 2, and the first to take place in the Pacific Ocean. Earlier operations were largely concentrated in the Caribbean Sea.
President Trump defended the campaign and said he possesses full legal authority to target drug vessels in international waters. However, he suggested he might seek Congressional authorisation if the mission expands to include land-based targets.
“We’re allowed to do that, and if we do it by land, we may go back to Congress,” Trump said, adding that his administration was “totally prepared” to broaden its anti-drug operations.
So far, at least 37 people have been killed in US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels, including one targeting a semi-submersible craft in the Caribbean earlier this month. Two survivors from a previous strike were later repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador.
Ecuadorian officials later released one of the men identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño citing a lack of evidence. The other survivor, a Colombian national, remains hospitalised.
Tensions have since escalated between Washington and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, whom Trump has labeled “a thug and a bad guy.”
“He better watch it or we’ll take very serious action against him and his country,” Trump warned, accusing Petro of encouraging large-scale drug production. “He has led his country into a death trap.”
On Sunday, Trump further denounced Petro as an “illegal drug leader,” vowing to end subsidies to Colombia, once one of the United States’ closest partners in Latin America.
Experts note that both Colombia and Ecuador which border the Pacific Ocean are major hubs for drug shipments moving northward through Central America and Mexico toward the United States.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that the majority of cocaine destined for US cities now moves via Pacific routes, while seizures in the Caribbean still account for a smaller share, though reportedly increasing.
US officials have released few details about the identities of those killed in the strikes or the organisations they allegedly worked for. Roughly 10,000 American troops, along with dozens of aircraft and naval vessels, are currently deployed across the Caribbean and Pacific as part of the continuing anti-narco operation.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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