Pete Hegseth Announces Four Alleged ‘Narco-Terrorists’ Killed in Trump-Ordered Strike Off Coast of Venezuela

Mark Schiefelbein/AP photo

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday on X that he directed an additional strike that killed four alleged “narco-terrorists” on a boat off the coast of Venezuela on President Donald Trump’s orders.

“The vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics headed to America to poison our people,” wrote Hegseth. “Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route.”

Hegseth went on to confirm that the “kinetic” strike took out the boat in international waters — in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility — and that no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation.

The attack is the latest in a series of Trump-ordered strikes on boats allegedly smuggling narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, with three last month killing all 17 people on board. Just yesterday, The New York Times reported that in a confidential notice to Congress, Trump declared the U.S. was in “armed conflict” with drug cartels he called “terrorist organizations,” and that these alleged drug smugglers were “unlawful combatants.”

“These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!” wrote Hegseth in his Friday announcement. Notably, trafficking drugs is not punishable by death in the U.S..

Trump also posted a video of the strike on Friday via Truth Social, writing that “A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory.”