‘This vessel—like every other—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,’ Hegseth said.
The U.S. military carried out a strike on a vessel it said was smuggling illicit narcotics to the United States, War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed in an X post in the early hours of Nov. 2. Three men were killed in the Caribbean Sea operation, he said.
Hegseth said the vessel was being operated by a terrorist organization.
“This vessel—like every other—was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” he wrote.
“Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
On Sept. 4, the White House formally notified Congress of the use of military force against the cartels per the War Powers Act. The letter confirmed a report from early October that said the United States was engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
The Trump administration has conducted at least 14 strikes against vessels. The strikes have targeted vessels traveling along the drug-smuggling routes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, all in international waters.
More than 60 people, whom the administration has called narco-terrorists, have been killed.
The State Department, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has designated eight Latin American and Caribbean cartels and criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations, including Tren de Aragua, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noreste (formerly Los Zetas), La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cártel de Golfo (Gulf Cartel), and Cárteles Unidos.
The vessel strikes have met with criticism from some members of Congress, who have sought briefings from the Trump administration on its military operations. However, Democrats were excluded from a recent Oct. 30 congressional briefing, according to Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“Shutting Democrats out of a briefing on U.S. military strikes and withholding the legal justification for those strikes from half the Senate is indefensible and dangerous,” he said in an Oct. 29 statement. “Decisions about the use of American military force are not campaign strategy sessions, and they are not the private property of one political party.”
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said that the recent U.S. strikes have been covered in past bipartisan briefings.
“The Department of War has briefed the appropriate committees of jurisdiction, including the Senate Intelligence committee, numerous times throughout the operations targeting narco-terrorists,“ Wilson said in an emailed statement. ”These have occurred on a bipartisan basis and will continue as such.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for further comment but did not receive a response.
Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.