Hegseth says 4 killed in latest strike on 'narco-trafficking vessel'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. military killed four "narco-terrorists" on a boat he said was carrying narcotics off the coast of Venezuela on Friday morning, the latest strike on “narco-trafficking” vessels in the Caribbean Sea. 

Hegseth said a “kinetic” strike took out a boat affiliated with a designated terrorist organization in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility. 

No U.S. forces were injured during the operation. 

“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 wrote in a post on social media.

Hegseth shared a 38-second video of the strike, showing the vessel being blown up and engulfed in fire. 

“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. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”

The latest strike came as President Trump declared Thursday that the U.S. is now at war with drug cartels that are designated as terrorist organizations by the administration, providing legal justification for prior strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea last month. 

In a notice sent to multiple national security congressional committees, Trump said the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations.” 

“The President directed the Department of War to conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict,” the administration said in the notice to lawmakers. “The United States has now reached a critical point where we must use force in self-defense and defense of others against the ongoing attacks by these designated terrorist organizations.”

The military has conducted at least three strikes against vessels the administration says were carrying drugs and were en route to the U.S. Those strikes killed 17 people on the boats in total. At least two vessels originated from Venezuela. The administration did not name any of the cartels, designated as terrorist groups, to be targeted in the notice to Congress. 

“They illegally and directly cause the deaths of tens of thousands of American citizens each year. ... These groups are now transnational and conduct ongoing attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere as organized cartels,” the administration wrote in the notice. “Therefore, the President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States.”

Updated at 1:19 p.m. EDT