Hegseth announces latest strike on boat near Venezuela he says was trafficking drugs

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday he ordered a fourth strike on a small boat in the waters off Venezuela, according to a social media post.

In his post, Hegseth said that “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.”

The strike comes less than a day after it was revealed that President Trump declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and declared that the United States is now in an “armed conflict” with them in a memo obtained by the Associated Press.

According to Hegseth’s post, the strike killed four men, but it offered no other details on who they were or what organization they belonged to.

The video of the strike posted online showed a small boat moving in open water when it suddenly explodes. As the smoke from the explosion clears, the boat is visible, consumed with flames, floating motionless on the water.

Last month, the U.S. military carried out three other deadly strikes against boats in the Caribbean that the administration accused of ferrying drugs.

With this strike, at least three of these operations have now been carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.

Those strikes followed a buildup of U.S. maritime forces in the Caribbean unlike any seen in recent times.

The Navy’s presence in the region — eight warships with more than 5,000 sailors and Marines — has been pretty stable for weeks, according to two defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.

Officials in the Pentagon, when asked for more details about the strike, referred the Associated Press back to Hegseth’s post on social media.

Toropin writes for the Associated Press.