US troops have assassinated four individuals in a strike on a ship off the Venezuelan coast that was supposedly smuggling drugs, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth states.
“The attack was carried out in international waters just outside of Venezuela while the ship was carrying large quantities of narcotics – bound for America to poison our citizens,” Hegseth posted on X.
It comes after a series of recent fatal attacks the US has conducted on ships in international waters it alleges are engaged in “narco-trafficking”.
The strikes have attracted condemnation in countries including Venezuela and Colombia, with some international lawyers describing the strikes as a breach of international law.
Hegseth said the attack took place in the US Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which covers most of South America and the Caribbean.
“Our intelligence, unequivocally, verified that this ship was trafficking drugs, the individuals on it were narco-terrorists, and they were sailing along a known narco-trafficking route,” Hegseth stated of Friday’s assault.
“These attacks will persist until the assaults on the American people cease!!!!”
US President Trump also affirmed the strike on his Truth Social platform, claiming that the boat was stocked with enough drugs “to kill 25 to 50 thousand people.”
But the US has not offered evidence for its claims or any details of the people on board.
No response was heard from Venezuela immediately but its leader, Nicolás Maduro, has previously denounced the attacks and stated that his nation will protect itself from US “aggression”.
Friday’s deadly attack is the fourth in a month carried out by the US.
Trump reported 11 had been murdered in an attack on a drug-smuggling ship in the southern Caribbean in early September.
Later in the month, two different days of strikes four days apart killed a combined total of six individuals.
This Thursday, a leaked memo to Congress – as reported by US media – stated the US government had now concluded it was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.
This is important because the administration must report to Congress if it is going to employ the armed forces, which implies it intends to employ additional military force.
The US framed its strikes against suspected drug boats as self-defence, despite the fact that many lawyers doubted their legality.
Substantiating this as an active armed conflict is probably Trump’s method of being able to use more draconian wartime powers – for instance, killing “enemy fighters” even if they haven’t made a violent threat, or holding people in detention without charge. These are sort of the same powers that have been used against al-Qaeda since 9/11.
Trump has yet to give the rationale behind why he seems to be classifying drug trafficking and related crimes as an “armed attack”, or specified which cartels he considers are attacking the US.
He has already labelled many cartels, such as in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela, as terrorist groups – giving US authorities increased powers in how they react towards them.
