US forces carried out a strike on a vessel suspected of drug trafficking off the coast of Venezuela on Friday, October 3, leaving four people dead, according to officials in Washington.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the operation on X (formerly Twitter), saying it was the fourth such attack on alleged drug-smuggling targets in recent weeks. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” Hegseth wrote, claiming the strike occurred “in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela” and targeted a boat “carrying substantial amounts of narcotics headed to America to poison our people.”

An accompanying video showed a speedboat racing across the waves before being engulfed by smoke and flames. Hegseth said the campaign would continue “until the attacks on the American people are over.”

US President Donald Trump echoed the message on his Truth Social platform, calling the operation a success that stopped “a boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 to 50 thousand people” from reaching US shores.

The Pentagon previously notified Congress that the administration considers the United States to be in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, designating them as non-state terrorist groups and labeling their members “unlawful combatants.”

However, Washington has not released public evidence linking the destroyed vessels to confirmed traffickers. Legal experts have warned that such lethal strikes could violate international law if the targets are not directly engaged in combat or if the attacks occur outside declared conflict zones.

Regional Reaction

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro condemned the strike as “an armed aggression to impose regime change and steal Venezuela’s oil and gold.” He ordered the mobilization of reservists and militias “if it is necessary to move from unarmed combat to armed combat.”

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) described the incident as an “illegal incursion” and accused the US of attempting to intimidate Latin American nations.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro also criticized the action, writing on X that “poor Caribbean youths were on that boat” and arguing that destroying a vessel that could have been intercepted “violates the principle of proportionality.”

Tensions between Washington and Caracas remain high following recent US military deployments in the Caribbean, including the dispatch of ten F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, the largest buildup in the region in more than three decades.