Washington (BN24) – President Donald Trump announced Friday that he ordered a U.S. military strike on a vessel allegedly tied to a designated terrorist organization engaged in drug trafficking, killing three people aboard. The attack took place in international waters within the U.S. Southern Command’s jurisdiction, according to Trump’s statement on Truth Social.
In his post, Trump said the strike was authorized after intelligence confirmed the vessel was transporting illicit narcotics along a well-known trafficking corridor. He released a video of the attack, showing the boat engulfed in flames shortly after being struck.
“On my orders, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with a designated terrorist organization conducting narco-trafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump wrote. He added that no U.S. personnel were injured during the operation.
The president emphasized that the three men aboard the vessel were “narco-terrorists,” declaring: “STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!”
The action marks the latest in a series of U.S. military strikes targeting suspected drug cartels and their networks in the region. Earlier this week, Trump announced a separate strike that targeted Venezuelan cartel operatives, calling it part of an expanded crackdown on narcoterrorism.
“This morning, on my orders, U.S. military forces conducted a second kinetic strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narco-terrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump said Monday.
The campaign has escalated in recent months. In early September, a U.S. strike destroyed a Venezuelan drug boat in the southern Caribbean, leaving nearly a dozen suspected members of the Tren de Aragua cartel dead. In February, the administration formally designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel, and other criminal organizations as foreign terrorist groups, expanding the legal tools available for military action.
The operation underscores Trump’s pledge to treat major narcotics networks as terrorist organizations and to authorize direct military force against them outside U.S. borders.
