Hegseth says the US launched another attack targeting alleged narco-terrorists

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the US military had carried out another strike in the eastern Pacific that he said targeted terrorists allegedly involved in drug trafficking.

Three suspected narco-terrorists were killed, according to Hegseth. The strikes were ordered at the behest of President Donald Trump.

Hegseth said the Pentagon had conducted “another deadly kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were involved in narco-trafficking in the eastern Pacific.”

“The vessel was identified by our intelligence to be involved in illegal narcotics trafficking, plying a known drug-trafficking route and carrying narcotics,” he added. “Three men were aboard a narco-terrorist vessel during the strike in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in the strike.”

This is the ninth ship strike since September and the second in the eastern Pacific.

“These strikes will continue from day to day,” Hegseth said on Wednesday. “These are not just drug runners – these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities. These DTOs are the “al Qaeda” of our hemisphere and they will not escape justice. We will find them and kill them until the threat to the American people ends.”

A US military drone strike ordered by President Trump destroyed a ship in the eastern Pacific on October 22, 2025 and killed three suspected narco-terrorists, according to the War Department. (War Department)

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The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed or evidence of drugs on board.