US announces 8th strike on alleged narcotics boat, 1st in the Pacific
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US strikes an alleged drug vessel in international waters off Colombia, marking the 8th such attack.
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A boat off the coast of Colombia in the Pacific Ocean before being struck by US forces, October 22, 2025 (X/ @SecWar)
The US struck another alleged drug vessel Tuesday night, this time on the Pacific side of South America, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed on Wednesday.
Hegseth stated that this incident, which a defense official confirmed occurred in international waters off Colombia and resulted in two fatalities aboard the vessel, marks the eighth known US attack on a boat since September 2.
The previous seven strikes have all targeted vessels in the Caribbean, and in all eight strikes, the same unfounded pretext was used: striking vessels allegedly engaged in the narcotics trade with no proof provided to back this claim, sparking a backlash.
The strike carried out for the first time on the Pacific side of South America killed at least two people. Previous attacks have hit seven vessels in the Caribbean and killed at least 32 people.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media that the Defense Department conducted the strike at President Trump's direction and alleged the vessel was operated by a "designated terrorist organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific."
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.
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 22, 2025
The vessel was known by our intelligence to be… pic.twitter.com/BayDhUZ4Ac
"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," he added.
Hegseth said no US forces were harmed in the strike and also shared a video of the incident, in which viewers see a vessel moving through the water before it is hit and engulfed in flames.
At least 34 people have been killed in US strikes on alleged drug boats, and the Trump administration has told Congress the US is in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, arguing that the narcotics they smuggle kill tens of thousands of Americans every year and that this constitutes an "armed attack".
On October 22, a group of independent United Nations experts condemned recent US military strikes on Venezuelan vessels in international waters, describing them as “extrajudicial executions” and warning that they represent a dangerous escalation in the Caribbean.
UN experts stressed that such actions breach international law, stating, “Even if such allegations were substantiated, the use of lethal force in international waters without a proper legal basis violates the international law of the sea and amounts to extrajudicial executions.”
