Hegseth Announces 4th Deadly Strike On ‘Narco-Terrorist’ Boat Off Venezuela 

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced Friday another military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off Venezuela which killed four people.

This marks at least the fourth such attack, and after President Trump formally notified Congress this week that the US was entering a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels. Hegseth made clear on social media, “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”

Hegseth affirmed in a social media post that he had directed the latest strike on Trump’s orders, and released overhead drone video of the attack.

“The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics – headed to America to poison our people,” Hegseth said on X.

“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,” he added.

Trump’s rationale for the attacks in the aforementioned memo states the cartels are “non-state armed groups” whose actions smuggling drugs “constitute an armed attack against the United States”.

As for Hegseth, his post claimed the boat was “affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations” – however there remains a legal dispute as to whether merely labeling a cartel as an FTO automatically warrants military action, and without warning or attempt to intercept the vessel.

In particular the administration has essentially declared war on the Tren de Aragua cartel, and says it is cooperating with the Maduro government, which Caracas has rejected, and so the presence of the cartel’s members in the US is a “predatory incursion” by a foreign nation.

The new footage of the Friday (presumably) drone attack…

The US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a new attack against a drug trafficking boat in international waters near Venezuela, resulting in four drug traffickers killed. pic.twitter.com/AiDsgEcBXU

— Cartel Watch (@CartelWatchNet) October 3, 2025

The Washington Examiner on Thursday said that war could be on the horizon. The publication “understands that military planners believe the assembled forces are now sufficient to seize and hold key strategic facilities such as ports and airfields on Venezuelan territory (the Washington Examiner is withholding some details for national security reasons).” And for now it appears the occasional attack on small alleged drug boats will continue.