The U.S. military killed five alleged drug smugglers in strikes against two vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday, in an expansion of the Trump administration’s use of the armed forces in its counter-narcotics campaign.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hegseth said the military attacked a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean and killed two men on Tuesday. It was the first known U.S. military operation in the Pacific since President Donald Trump kicked off a new offensive against the drug trade.
Hours later, Hegseth said the military had struck another vessel in the eastern Pacific on Wednesday, killing three men.
The strikes came on top of at least seven others in the Caribbean in a campaign that has raised U.S. tensions with Venezuela and Colombia.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route and was carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said, without providing evidence, after the latest strike.
He posted videos of around 30 seconds in length of the two strikes on X; both appeared to show a vessel traveling in the water before exploding.
The strikes in the Caribbean have killed at least 32 people, but the Trump administration has provided few details, such as how many alleged drugs the targeted vessels were carrying or what specific evidence it had to suggest they were carrying drugs.
News of the Tuesday strike in the eastern Pacific was first reported by CBS News.
“The attack on another boat in the Pacific, we don’t know if it’s Ecuadorean or Colombian, killed people,” said Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who is in the midst of a spat with Trump over the boat strikes and tariffs. “It is murder. Whether in the Caribbean or Pacific, the U.S. government strategy breaks the norms of international law.”
Colombia’s Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement the U.S. must halt the attacks.
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa, who has declared war on gangs in his country, has expressed support for Trump’s anti-narcotics efforts.
Trump, asked about the strike by reporters in the Oval Office, said his administration had the legal authority to carry it out and that he believed each strike saved American lives.
Trump also reiterated plans to strike targets on the ground in Venezuela, which would be an escalation. He said if he takes this step, his administration likely would inform the U.S. Congress.
“We’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land,” Trump said. “We don’t have to do that, but I think … I’d like to do that.”
Legal experts have questioned why the U.S. military is carrying out the strikes, instead of the Coast Guard, which is the main U.S. maritime law enforcement agency, and why other efforts to halt the shipments are not made before resorting to deadly strikes.
Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-military-strikes-suspected-drug-vessel-pacific-2025-10-22
