US conducts eighth strike on alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Pacific

The United States has conducted an eighth military strike on a vessel alleged to be carrying illicit drugs across international waters.

But for the first time, the boat in question was not in the Caribbean Sea but instead in the Pacific Ocean.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike on social media Wednesday, saying it took place a day prior.

“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 wrote.

“There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed.”

A video accompanying Hegseth’s post shows missile striking a small blue boat clipping across the water, which subsequently erupts in flames.

The newly announced strike opens a new front in President Donald Trump’s growing military campaign against Latin American cartels, fuelling questions about the limits and legality of his actions.

Still, the Trump administration has justified the deadly bombing campaign as necessary to protect US citizens from illicit drugs.

It has sought to frame drug traffickers as enemy combatants, a theme Hegseth reprised in Wednesday’s statement, where he compared the boat’s occupants to the armed group Al Qaeda.