Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, that the U.S. military conducted its 10th strike on a vessel suspected of carrying drugs overnight, killing six people. (Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth post on X)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military in a night operation struck an alleged drug vessel and killed six people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday.
“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat al-Qaida,” Hegseth said in his post on X. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.” Hegseth said the vessel was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang.
No U.S. forces were harmed in the operation in the Carribean Sea. Hegseth’s post included a 20-second clip of the strike.
The strike is the first to be conducted at night, and the third consecutive strike this week. The first two operations this week were conducted in the Pacific Ocean.
The latest operation is at least the 10th known strike conducted in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility since September. The strikes come following a buildup of maritime forces in the region, including eight surface warships and more than 6,000 sailors and Marines. The operations have killed at least 43 people.
Two B-1 Lancers took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas on Thursday and flew near Venezuela, though they remained in international airspace, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Oct. 15, B-52H Stratofortress bombers conducted an attack demonstration off the coast of Venezuela.
The Trump administration has asserted that drug traffickers are armed combatants threatening the United States, creating justification to use military force. But that assertion has been met with some unease on Capitol Hill.
President Donald Trump has said U.S. attacks on alleged drug traffickers do not need a declaration of war and has not ruled out a land-based campaign.
“We’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land,” Trump said Wednesday. “We don’t have to do that, but I think ... I’d like to do that.”
