US Boat Strike Kills 4 Alleged ‘Narco-Terrorists’ Off Venezuela, Pete Hegseth Says

The U.S. military has carried out another lethal strike on suspected cartel traffickers, killing four alleged “narco-terrorists” aboard a drug-smuggling vessel off the coast of Venezuela, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday.

Hegseth said the targeted boat was “affiliated with designated terrorist organizations” and loaded with narcotics bound for the United States. He confirmed all four men onboard were killed.

“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth wrote on X. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”

The White House said the vessel carried “enough drugs to kill 25,000 to 50,000 Americans,” warning traffickers around the globe: “BE WARNED!”

The latest operation marks at least the fifth such strike since September 2, bringing the total number of alleged cartel operatives killed at sea to 24. Each mission has targeted boats identified by the Trump administration as narco-terrorist threats.

President Donald Trump previewed the growing campaign earlier this week during a speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. “If you try to poison our people, we will blow you out of existence,” Trump declared. “That’s the only language they really understand. That’s why you don’t see any more boats on the ocean.”

With repeated strikes now hitting cartel-linked vessels across the Caribbean, the Trump administration has escalated its unprecedented strategy of treating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations — unleashing the full power of the U.S. military against them.