U.S. conducts seventh strike on boat allegedly involved in drug trafficking in the Caribbean

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Sunday that the U.S. conducted a strike Friday on a boat that American intelligence officials believed was involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Caribbean.

Hegseth wrote in a post on X that the vessel was affiliated with a Colombian terrorist organization and had “substantial amounts of narcotics” on board. He said the three men on the boat were all killed and no US forces were harmed.

This is the seventh known strike in a series of recent attacks by the U.S. military on vessels that the Trump administration says are involved in drug trafficking. It comes days after another strike on an alleged drug boat that CNN reported appeared to be the first time an attack did not kill everyone on board. U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday the survivors of that strike were released to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

“These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth wrote Sunday. “The United States military will treat these organizations like the terrorists they are—they will be hunted, and killed, just like Al Qaeda.”

The strikes are a part of the Trump administration’s hardening stance against South American countries allegedly involved in smuggling illicit drugs into the US. The president recently authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela and has been weighing military action inside the country as part of a pressure campaign to oust President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has also clashed publicly with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who accused the U.S. last week of murdering an innocent Colombian national during one of its Caribbean strikes. Trump announced Sunday he would cancel all US payments and subsidies to the country.

Petro responded on X, calling Trump “ignorant” and denying his involvement in illegal drug trade.

The Trump administration has produced a classified legal opinion seeking to justify lethal strikes against a secret and expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, CNN has reported. The opinion is significant, legal experts previously told CNN, because it appears to give grounds for the president designating drug traffickers as enemy combatants and having them summarily killed without legal review.

Historically, people involved in drug trafficking have been considered criminals with due process rights, with the Coast Guard interdicting drug-trafficking vessels and arresting smugglers.

The Senate blocked a push earlier this month to limit Trump’s ability to command the military to strike alleged drug boats without congressional authorization.

Sens. Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski were the only Republican lawmakers to cross party lines and support the resolution.

“We basically are summarily executing people who are accused of something. It’s a terrible idea,” Paul, who joined with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine to force a vote on reining in Trump’s war powers, told CNN on Thursday.

Alison Main, Natasha Bertrand, CNN