© EPA-EFE/SHAWN THEW Trump is convinced that it was transporting drugs.
The United States has killed four people in an attack on a ship that the US military said was transporting drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Reuters reports. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday, recalling that this was at least the fourth such attack in recent weeks.
The strike was another example of how President Donald Trump is using American military power in new and often legally controversial ways, from deploying troops in Los Angeles to conducting counterterrorism operations against suspected drug traffickers.
Hegset said the strike took place in international waters, all of the dead were men, and that the ship was carrying “significant quantities of drugs bound for America to poison our people.”
“These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people stop!!!!” he wrote on the social network X.
The minister also released a 40-second video showing the ship moving through the water, and then shells falling on it and the surrounding water area, leading to an explosion.
Earlier this morning, on President Trump's orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the… pic.twitter.com/QpNPljFcGn
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 3, 2025
Hegset did not provide evidence, but said that intelligence had confirmed “without a shadow of a doubt” that drugs were on board and that the crew consisted of “narco-terrorists.” He did not specify the amount or type of substances seized.
Trump, also without evidence, claimed that there were enough drugs on board to kill 25,000 to 50,000 people.
Previously, counternarcotics operations were typically conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard, the nation's primary maritime law enforcement agency, rather than the military.
However, this week, the Pentagon informed Congress that Trump had determined that the United States was in a state of “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels. The document discusses the legal justification for the use of U.S. military force in the Caribbean region.
Some former military lawyers argue that the Trump administration's explanation for killing drug suspects instead of detaining them does not meet the requirements of international humanitarian law.
Trump also said his administration is considering attacks against drug cartels operating on land, which could spark even more legal disputes.
Meanwhile, the US is increasing its military presence in the southern Caribbean: F-35 fighter jets are stationed in Puerto Rico, eight US warships with thousands of sailors and marines are in the region, as well as one nuclear submarine.
The Trump administration has been largely silent on details of previous strikes, including the identities of those killed and the cargo.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has repeatedly accused the United States of trying to remove him from power. In August, Washington doubled the reward for information leading to his arrest to $50 million, accusing him of links to drug trafficking and criminal gangs, charges that Maduro denies.
Eight US Navy ships are already off the coast of Venezuela. Caracas is mobilizing hundreds of thousands of reservists. Washington is sending F-35s to Puerto Rico. But can the United States restore order in America's “backyard” without a ground war? And what is at stake?
Read about this in the article “War for Oil or Fight Against Cartels? What's Behind the Escalation Between the US and Venezuela” by Candidate of Historical Sciences Vitaliy Bilan.
