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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday announced the latest in a series of U.S. military strikes on boats accused of ferrying narcotics, saying six people were killed in dual attacks on vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The Pentagon said the Sunday strikes bring the total number of known attacks to 19 and the death toll to at least 75 since the Trump administration launched its maritime campaign against drug trafficking in South American waters — a move many observers see as an effort to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“These vessels were known by our intelligence to be associated with illicit narcotics smuggling, were carrying narcotics, and were transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth said in a social media post.
The administration has so far offered no evidence to support its claims, and lawmakers — including some Republicans — are demanding more details on the legal justification and targeting procedures behind the strikes.
Last week, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met privately with members of Congress who oversee national security issues, offering one of the first high-level briefings on the rationale for the campaign. But Democrats said the explanation was incomplete, and Senate Republicans voted a day later to block a measure that would have restricted President Donald Trump’s authority to launch attacks against Venezuela without congressional authorization.
The U.S. began the strikes in early September, initially targeting vessels in the Caribbean before expanding operations into the eastern Pacific, where much of the cocaine from South America’s largest producers is trafficked. The White House has also ordered a major military buildup in the region, including deploying an aircraft carrier.
Trump has repeatedly said the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and alleged that the targeted boats are operated by foreign terrorist organizations “flooding America’s cities with drugs.”
The growing campaign has fueled speculation about whether the administration’s true aim is to destabilize or remove Maduro, who faces U.S. narcoterrorism charges. The Venezuelan leader has dismissed the accusations, calling Washington’s actions a “fabricated war” meant to justify intervention.
In the latest attacks, Hegseth released a video — a now-standard feature of the Pentagon’s campaign — showing one vessel exploding into a fireball after being struck. Another clip showed a smaller boat engulfed in flames after what appeared to be a direct hit.
If confirmed, the operations would represent one of the deadliest single days in the U.S. military’s expanding anti-narcotics offensive under Trump’s second term.
