US carries out strike against 'drug traffickers' in Pacific

The strike, at least the eighth conducted so far, killed two people on board the vessel

A screengrab from a video showing the US strike on a vessel in the Pacific Ocean. Photo: Screengrab

The US has carried out a strike against a fast boat manned by alleged drug traffickers, this time in the Pacific Ocean, in a first for President Donald Trump's administration.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the “lethal kinetic strike” hit a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organisation conducting drug trafficking in the Eastern Pacific. Mr Hegseth did not clarify what organisation the boat was believed to have belonged to.

“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,” Mr Hegseth said in a post on X, adding that the two people on board the vessel were killed.

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Mr Hegseth said that “narco-terrorists” would “find no safe harbour anywhere in our hemisphere”, comparing the groups to Al Qaeda.

“There will be no refuge or forgiveness − only justice,” he wrote.

Mr Trump said later from the Oval Office that drug trafficking is a national security problem. "They killed 300,000 Americans last year," he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio added "if people want to stop seeing drug boats blown up, stop sending drugs to the United States".

This is believed to be the eighth strike on a vessel the US has claimed was carrying drugs, though it is the first time a strike has taken place in the Pacific Ocean. Other strikes have been carried out in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. More than 30 people have been killed in the strikes so far.

The strike comes after another attack on a vessel the US said was being operated by the National Liberation Army, a Colombian rebel group known to be involved in drug trafficking. Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the US of “murder” and of violating the territorial sovereignty of Latin American nations.

Mr Trump, in his turn, called Mr Petro an “illegal drug leader” and said that the US would raise tariffs on Bogota and stop “all payments” to the country.

Colombia recalled its ambassador from Washington on Monday.