US carries out “lethal strike” on drug trafficking vessel in eastern Pacific

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that American forces carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in the deaths of four drug traffickers.

In a post on X, Hegseth stated that the operation was conducted at the direction of President Donald Trump. “Earlier today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on yet another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Eastern Pacific,” he said.

According to Hegseth, intelligence had confirmed the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting a known trafficking route, and carrying narcotics at the time of the strike. No U.S. personnel were harmed in the operation.

“The Western Hemisphere is no longer a safe haven for narco-terrorists bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans,” Hegseth added. “The Department of War will continue to hunt them down and eliminate them wherever they operate.”

This strike marks the second such operation in the Pacific in recent weeks. A week earlier, Hegseth reported a similar attack in which a vessel carrying two traffickers was sunk. Since early September, U.S. forces have increasingly targeted ships transporting narcotics, primarily in the Caribbean Sea, based on intelligence reports.

By Vugar Khalilov