US strikes two more alleged drug-carrying boats, this time in the
Pacific Ocean
[October 23, 2025]
By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military on Wednesday launched its ninth
strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing three people in
the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said,
expanding the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking
in South America.
It followed another strike Tuesday night, also in the eastern Pacific,
that killed two people, Hegseth posted on social media hours earlier.
The attacks were departures from the seven previous U.S. strikes that
had targeted vessels in the Caribbean Sea. They bring the death toll to
at least 37 from attacks that began last month.
The strikes represent an expansion of the military's targeting area as
well as a shift to the waters off South America where much of the
cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled. Hegseth’s social
media posts also drew a direct comparison between the war on terrorism
that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump
administration's crackdown.
“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging
war on our border and our people,” Hegseth said, adding “there will be
no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”
Later Wednesday, he referred to the alleged drug-runners as “the ‘Al
Qaeda’ of our hemisphere.”
Republican President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by asserting
that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug
cartels and proclaiming the criminal organizations unlawful combatants,
relying on the same legal authority used by President George W. Bush's
administration for the war on terrorism.
Trump says strikes on land could be next
Asked about the latest boat attack, Trump insisted that “we have legal
authority. We’re allowed to do that.” He said similar strikes could
eventually come on land.
“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told
reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And
we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing
when we come to the land.”
Lawmakers from both political parties have expressed concerns about
Trump ordering the military actions without receiving authorization from
Congress or providing many details.
Appearing alongside Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended such
strikes, saying, “If people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop
sending drugs to the United States.”
Trump said the strikes he is ordering are meant to save Americans and
“the only way you can’t feel bad about it ... is that you realize that
every time you see that happen, you’re saving 25,000 lives.”
Targeting a boat in a thoroughfare for cocaine smuggling
In the first brief video Hegseth posted Wednesday, a small boat,
half-filled with brown packages, is seen moving along the water. Several
seconds into the video, the boat explodes and is seen floating
motionless on the water in flames.
The second video shows another boat moving quickly before being struck
by an explosion. Video apparently recorded after the explosion shows
packages floating in the water.
The U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean
Sea and the waters off the coast of Venezuela since this summer, raising
speculation that Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás
Maduro. Maduro faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.
[to top of second column]
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listens as President Donald Trump
speaks before a lunch with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
In his posts on the strikes, Trump has repeatedly argued that
illegal narcotics and the drug fentanyl carried by the vessels have
been poisoning Americans.
While the bulk of American overdose deaths are from fentanyl, the
drug is transported by land from Mexico. Venezuela is a major drug
transit zone, but the eastern Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean, is
the primary area for smuggling cocaine.
Colombia and Peru, countries with coastlines on the eastern Pacific,
are the world’s top cocaine producers. Wedged between them is
Ecuador, whose world-class ports and myriad maritime shipping
containers filled with bananas have become the perfect vehicle for
drug traffickers to move their product.
The administration has sidestepped prosecuting any occupants of
alleged drug-running vessels after returning two survivors of an
earlier strike to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.
Ecuadorian officials later said they released the man who was
returned because they had no evidence he committed a crime in their
country.
Questions from Congress as strikes continue
Some Republican lawmakers have asked the White House for more
clarification on its legal justification and specifics on how the
strikes are conducted, while Democrats insist they are violations of
U.S. and international law.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, said he was alarmed and angry about a lack of
information on the strikes.
“Expanding the geography simply expands the lawlessness and the
recklessness in the use of the American military without seeming
legal or practical justification,” Blumenthal said.
He said the way to target trafficking would be stopping the boats
and interrogating those aboard to find the source of the drugs, “not
just destroy the smugglers who are likely to be at the bottom of the
smuggling chain.”
The Republican-controlled Senate recently voted down a
Democratic-sponsored war powers resolution, mostly along party
lines, that would have required the president to seek authorization
from Congress before further military strikes.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he’s met with Rubio.
“He has researched the legal ramifications carefully and he believes
we’re on solid ground in attacking these narcoterrorists," Kennedy
said. "I trust his judgment.”
___
Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Kevin Freking in
Washington and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed
to this report.
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