Washington — October 3, 2025 U.S. forces killed four people in an attack on a vessel off the coast of Venezuela on Friday, marking the fourth such strike in the southern Caribbean in the past month.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike was carried out in international waters and targeted what the administration described as a drug-trafficking vessel. He claimed, without providing evidence, that the intelligence was “without a doubt” conclusive and that the boat was carrying a substantial quantity of narcotics.
“Our intelligence confirmed this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known transit route,” Hegseth wrote on X. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”
President Donald Trump also confirmed the operation, asserting that the vessel had been carrying enough drugs “to kill 25,000 to 50,000 people.” Neither he nor the Pentagon provided details about the identities of those killed or the type of drugs allegedly on board.
The strike comes amid a broader escalation of U.S. military activity in the region. The Pentagon has deployed F-35 aircraft to Puerto Rico, eight warships with thousands of sailors and marines to the southern Caribbean, and at least one nuclear-powered submarine.
Earlier this week, a leaked congressional notification revealed that Trump has formally designated the campaign against drug cartels as a “non-international armed conflict.” The classification gives the administration broad wartime powers, including the authority to kill or detain individuals designated as “enemy combatants.”
Legal experts and human rights advocates have sharply questioned the administration’s rationale, noting that maritime counter-narcotics operations have historically been conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard under law enforcement authority, not the military. Critics argue that treating suspected traffickers as combatants risks violating international law.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has previously condemned the strikes as U.S. “aggression,” has not yet responded to Friday’s incident. Washington has long accused Maduro of ties to drug trafficking, charges he denies. In August, the U.S. doubled its reward for information leading to his arrest to $50 million.
The Trump administration has designated multiple cartels in Mexico, Ecuador, and Venezuela as terrorist organizations, a move that expands U.S. authority to target them militarily. But the administration has yet to specify which groups are included in what it now characterizes as an armed conflict.
The latest strike follows a series of deadly operations that began in early September, when 11 people were killed in a U.S. attack on another vessel. Two additional strikes later that month killed six more people.
While the White House insists the campaign is necessary to protect Americans from narcotics, analysts warn the escalation risks drawing Washington deeper into a legally and politically fraught conflict at sea — and potentially on land.
