WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the U.S. military conducted its 10th strike on a vessel suspected of carrying drugs overnight, killing six people and bringing the death toll of the campaign against drug cartels to at least 46 people.
In a post to social media, Hegseth said that the vessel was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang and the strike occurred in the Caribbean.
The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks in September when they first began to three in one week now. Two of the strikes this week were also carried out in the eastern Pacific, expanding the area in which the military was willing to conduct the strikes.
In a 20-second black and white video of the strike that was posted to social media, a small boat can be seen apparently sitting motionless on the water when a long thin projectile descends on it resulting in an explosion. The video ends before the explosion dies down enough for the remains of the boat to become visible again.
In his post, Hegseth said that the strike was conducted in international waters and boasted that it was the first one conducted at night.
“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth said in the post. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”
The strike also came hours after the U.S. military flew a pair of supersonic, heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela on Thursday. The flight was just the most recent move in what has been an unusually large military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela that has raised speculation that President Donald Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.
