US forces have struck another vessel alleged to be carrying drugs, this time in the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon said.
The strike marks the eighth US strike against suspected drug boats since 2 September – but the first in the Pacific.
Video of the strike appears to show a long, blue speed boat moving through the water before being struck by US ordinance.
In a leaked memo recently sent to US lawmakers, the Trump administration said it determined it was involved in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug-trafficking organisations.
At least 34 people have been killed in the American strikes on alleged drug boats, including a recent strike on a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean.
The Pentagon reported that US forces had hit another ship suspected of transporting drugs, this time in Pacific Ocean waters.
Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said no US forces were hurt and that two people on board the ship were killed. Hegseth added that US intelligence was aware of the ship and thought it was transporting drugs along a well-known trafficking route in international waters.
This is the first US strike in the Pacific, but the eighth since September 2 against suspected drug boats.
Although he has the legal right to keep bombing boats in international waters, President Donald Trump stated that if he decides to target more land, he may approach the US Congress.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “We’re allowed to do that, and if we do (it) by land, we may go back to Congress.”.
According to him, his administration was “totally prepared” to deepen the escalation by expanding the anti-drug operations on land.
“Stop sending drugs to the United States if people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up,” further stated US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Oval Office alongside Trump.
Before being struck by a US ordinance, a long, blue speedboat can be seen moving through the water in the strike footage.
“There is no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere for narco-terrorists who want to establish a position on our shores,” Hegseth wrote on X. “These cartels are fighting against our border and our people in the same way that Al Qaeda fights against our homeland. “,”.
He went on to say, “There will be no forgiveness or sanctuary – only justice.”.
The Trump administration claimed in a recently leaked memo to US lawmakers that it had concluded it was engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug-trafficking organizations.
The United States has launched strikes on suspected drug boats, including one on a semi-submersible ship in the Caribbean, killing at least 34 people.
Following their survival of a strike last week, two men were sent back to Ecuador and Colombia.
One man, identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño, was later freed by Ecuador’s government, which claimed there was no proof of misconduct. According to reports, the Colombian man is still in the hospital.
According to US President Donald Trump and administration officials, the strikes are necessary to combat drug-trafficking organizations, some of which the US has designated as terrorist organizations.
According to a defense official quoted by CBS, the strike happened in international waters close to Colombia.
In his speech on Wednesday, Trump defended the operations, referring to them as “a national security problem” in the Oval Office.
The strike comes as tensions between the Trump administration and President Gustavo Petro’s Colombian government—whom Trump has called “a thug and a bad guy”—are on the rise.
Trump threatened to “take very serious action against him and his country unless he watches it.”. “He has put his nation in a precipice. “,”.
Trump blasted Petro on Sunday, calling him an “illegal drug leader” who is “strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia.”. “,”.
Trump went on to say that the United States will no longer provide Colombia, one of its closest allies in Latin America, with subsidies.
Experts have claimed that drugs are transported northward through Mexico and Central America via the substantial Pacific coastlines of neighboring Ecuador and Colombia.
The great majority of cocaine headed for US cities travels through the Pacific, according to US estimates from the Drug Enforcement Agency, or DEA.
While US officials have warned that the number of drug seizures is increasing, the Caribbean, where the majority of confirmed US strikes have occurred thus far, only makes up a small portion of the total.
The identities of the people killed in the strikes and the drug trafficking organizations they are alleged to have belonged to have not been disclosed by US officials to date.
The operation has involved the deployment of about 10,000 US troops to the Caribbean, along with dozens of military ships and aircraft.
