‘A Lethal, Kinetic Strike’: Hegseth Says U.S. Has Taken Out Another Drug Boat

The United States carried out its eighth strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat on Tuesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed.

Dramatic video shows the long vessel buzzing through the Eastern Pacific before being hit by a “lethal, kinetic strike” and bursting into flames. Two smugglers were killed in the strike.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike,” Hegseth wrote on X.

“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice,” he added.

Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.

The vessel was known by our intelligence to be… pic.twitter.com/BayDhUZ4Ac

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 22, 2025

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The Trump administration’s strikes have mainly taken place in international waters near Venezuela. The U.S. has also authorized a covert CIA operation in Venezuela against the country’s socialist dictator, Nicolás Maduro, while issuing an arrest warrant over his alleged role in drug trafficking in the region.

“We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come through the sea, so you get to see that, but we’re gonna stop them by land also,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday.

“I think Venezuela’s feeling heat, but I think a lot of other countries are feeling heat too. We’re not going to let this country, our country, be ruined because other people want to drop their worst. They have given us their worst, they’ve loaded up our country with prisoners,” the president added.

Maduro has called the strikes “a military attack on civilians who were not at war and were not militarily threatening any country,” while accusing the Trump administration of “seeking a regime change” in Venezuela.