U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that American forces conducted another lethal strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people in what the administration calls part of a “noninternational armed conflict” with narco-terrorist networks.
Trump said the operation, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was carried out in international waters and targeted a boat affiliated with what the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.
“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 conducting narcotrafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility–just off the Coast of Venezuela,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed.”
Hegseth later posted a video of the strike on X, calling it “another successful operation against the narcoterrorist threat in the Caribbean.”
This marks the fifth deadly strike since Trump authorized the Pentagon in September to carry out direct action against drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean, resulting in at least 27 deaths to date.
The Trump administration has dramatically escalated operations targeting Latin American-based criminal organizations, designating 13 groups–including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua–as foreign terrorist organizations.
The strikes come amid heightened tensions with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom U.S. officials accuse of overseeing the so-called Cartel of the Suns–a network of military and political figures allegedly profiting from narcotics trafficking. In August, the U.S. doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest from $25 million to $50 million.
Maduro has dismissed Washington’s accusations as “imperialist fabrications” and ordered his armed forces to remain on alert, warning, “If the gringos attack, we will respond.”
The Pentagon has deployed a substantial force to the southern Caribbean in recent months, including guided-missile destroyers, F-35B fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and a Marine amphibious group, in what analysts say signals a longer-term U.S. strategic shift back to the Western Hemisphere.
