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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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U.S. forces have carried out another lethal strike on an alleged drug smuggling vessel in the Caribbean, killing three people, according to President Donald Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The Context
At least 64 people have been killed in 15 U.S. attacks on vessels in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific since the start of September, according to numbers published by the administration.
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Trump and Hegseth have characterized the operations as an uncompromising crackdown on drug smuggling into the U.S., a strike campaign widely criticized by Democrats and some Republicans, as well as United Nations experts and former officials, as illegal under international law. The administration says the attacks are legal.
The U.S. has dramatically beefed up its military presence in the southern Caribbean by deploying troops, aircraft, surface vessels and a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine to the region. The USS Gerald Ford, the Navy's newest and largest aircraft carrier, is expected to arrive close to Venezuela in the coming days. Many observers have seen the buildup as a sign of a desire to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from power rather than a meaningful counternarcotics push.
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What To Know
Hegseth said the vessel was traveling along "a known narcotrafficking route" with drugs onboard when U.S. forces struck the boat in international waters on Saturday.
The administration has publicly provided little in the way of evidence about those on board the targeted vessels. British newspaper The Guardian reported last month the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has provided most of the intelligence used to carry out the strikes and the evidence against the alleged smugglers will likely remain secret. Trump confirmed in mid-October he had authorized the agency to carry out covert operations in Venezuela and has left the door open to unspecified land operations against the country.
"These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home—and they will not succeed," Hegseth said. An unnamed designated terrorist organization operated the vessel, Hegseth said.
Only a small percentage of the cocaine coming up from South America travels via the southern Caribbean. Far more heads north to the U.S. via the Pacific.
Fentanyl, responsible for many more U.S. deaths each year, mostly makes its way into the U.S. from China and India via the Mexican border, rather than from South America.
"The Department will treat them exactly how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them," Hegseth said. Trump has declared the U.S. is involved in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels and has leaned on the same powers the George W. Bush administration used in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Several Democratic senators on Friday called for an "urgent briefing" for all Senate members on the U.S. attacks and urged the administration to "provide all legal opinions related to these strikes and a list of the groups or other entities the president has deemed targetable."
"To date, the administration has failed to provide the full Senate with the basic information necessary to carry out its oversight responsibilities, including the identities of the groups against which the president has authorized the use of military force—even as reports increase that the administration is planning additional strikes inside Venezuela,” the senators said in a letter penned to Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence.
What People Are Saying
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post to X: "This vessel—like EVERY OTHER—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling."
Update 11/2/2025 5:50 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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