On Tuesday, President Trump announced that yet another suspected drug-smuggling boat was intercepted in international waters and destroyed. The boat had six crew members, all of whom were killed in the strike.
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. military carried out another strike on a suspected drug vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six suspected smugglers.
"Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War, ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility — just off the Coast of Venezuela. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route," Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.
"The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike," Trump said. "No U.S. Forces were harmed."
Operational security precludes the War Department or the President from announcing what weapon was used to send the drug boat to the bottom, but it appears to be a missile or rocket strike. Watch:
This was described as a "lethal kinetic strike." In the video, you can see what appears to be the weapon coming in from the upper left.
This is the fifth such strike since Congress was notified of the administration's intent to stop this trafficking.
The strikes come after the White House sent lawmakers a memo Sept. 30 informing them that the U.S. is now participating in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug smugglers.
Additionally, it comes on the heels of four other fatal strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean since September.
On Friday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the formation of the counter-narcotics task force in his official X account:
At the President’s direction, the Department of War is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the @SOUTHCOM area of responsibility to crush the cartels, stop the poison, and keep America safe. The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will…
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 10, 2025
The post concludes:
The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.
Given the nature of the strike and the resulting fireball, there would seem to be very little that one could describe as "cold" about this. And, as a result of this, cartel smugglers are probably starting to look at their speedboats with some distinct apprehension and consternation.
Read More: Watch: Venezuelan Drug Boats - and Then There Were Four
Watch As US Forces Delete a Venezuelan Drug-Trafficking Boat
Congressional Democrats, led by Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), filed a War Powers Act resolution in September to stop the interdictions, but that effort came to naught, other than placing Democrats in the unenviable position of fighting for drug smugglers over American citizens. That's not likely to sell well with voters.
For the time being, the War Department will continue sending suspected drug smuggling boats to the bottom of the ocean. Eventually, the cartels will change methods and find some other way to smuggle poison into the United States, but at least for now, we have them responding to us, not the other way around, and that's worth doing.
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