OAN Staff Blake Wolf
1:05 PM – Wednesday, October 22, 2025
The U.S. military carried out an airstrike on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America, according to U.S. officials. It destroyed the vessel and killed two “narco-terrorists” on board.
However, he did not specify which group the individuals were associated with.
The Tuesday ambush was the eighth U.S. strike against drug-trafficking vessels in recent months — the previous seven took place in the Caribbean Sea.
Additionally, the most recent operation marks the first strike in the Pacific Ocean since the Trump administration declared it was engaged in an armed conflict with transnational drug cartels as part of its campaign to disrupt the global narcotics trade.
In total, at least 34 people have been killed in these airstrikes since the campaign began, according to officials.
On X, Hegseth issued a statement and attached a video recorded of the strike, stating that the vessel was “known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling.”
“Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific,” Hegseth stated.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice,” Hegseth added.
The Trump administration’s decision to use the U.S. Military instead of the Coast Guard for airstrikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels has drawn scrutiny from some Democrat lawmakers.
Critics have questioned both the legal justification for striking vessels, rather than intercepting them, and the classification of drug cartels as participants in a “non-international armed conflict.”
Nonetheless, in response, President Trump and Hegseth have defended the strikes as part of a broader “war” against international drug cartels, citing threats to both U.S. national security and public health.
“For decades, if not centuries, when you stop people at sea in international waters or in your own waters, you announce that you’re going to board the ship and you’re looking for contraband, smuggling, or drugs. This happens every day off of Miami. But we know from Coast Guard statistics that about 25 percent of the time the Coast Guard boards a ship there are no drugs. So if our policy now is to blow up every ship we suspect or accuse of drug running, that would be a bizarre world in which 25 percent of the people might be innocent,” stated Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) during a Sunday appearance on NBC.
In the Sunday interview, Paul went on to speculate that members of the Trump administration are utilizing the airstrikes off the coast of Venezuela to agitate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, ultimately creating the conditions for regime change.
Paul also questioned President Trump’s decision to disclose that the CIA is conducting covert operations in Venezuela.
“If you announce that you’re going to have covert CIA action, it’s no longer covert,” Paul stated. “So if you’re going to spy on a country, you usually don’t announce that you’re going to spy on a country. So it’s a little bit unusual there. I do think there are members of his administration who have been agitating for war with Venezuela for a long, long period of time.”
“I’ve known the president for over a decade,” he continued. “I’ve played golf with him many, many times. I enjoy his company. I was one of his biggest defenders on impeachment and would do so again. I think he’s one of the best presidents, if not the best president, of my lifetime. But it doesn’t mean I will sit quietly and say, ‘Oh well, whatever you want to do.”
Paul’s speculation that figures within the administration may be seeking to overthrow the Maduro regime comes amid a significant expansion of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean, including guided missile destroyers, a nuclear-powered submarine, F-35 fighter jets, and more troops.
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