Hegseth Announces New Front in Cartel ‘Conflict’ With Pacific Ocean Strike

The United States military on Tuesday night struck another alleged drug vessel, the first strike of its kind in the Pacific Ocean after more than a half dozen in the Caribbean Sea.

“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an X post announcing the deadly strike.

“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”

The Tuesday night strike killed two, Hegseth said in a video posted to X on Wednesday, and marked the military’s eighth vessel strike in recent months. The seven previous strikes had all taken place in the Caribbean Sea.

In the 23-second video released by Hegseth on Wednesday, a small boat filled with brown packages is seen moving along the water. Several seconds into the video, the boat explodes and is enveloped in flames.

Hegseth did not disclose the boat’s origin.

The strikes, which began in early September, have killed at least 34 people. President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by claiming the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, mostly coming from Venezuela. Legal experts previously told NOTUS that the administration is exaggerating the legal framework used to conduct the strikes, which was put in place after 9/11.

Senate Republicans have defended the White House’s use of military powers against foreign vessels, striking down a proposed addition to the War Powers Act earlier this month. Sen. Rand Paul is among a handful who have split from the GOP on the vessel strikes, arguing Trump is abusing his authority.

“I really think that you cannot have a policy where you just allege somebody is guilty of something and then kill them,” Paul said Tuesday on Fox. “We interject boats all the time … and the Coast Guard statistic is that 25% of the boats we stop to search don’t have any drugs. So if one out of four of the boats don’t have drugs on them, what kind of person would justify blowing up people?”

The ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, also released a statement Tuesday calling for a full “hearing to secure answers to the questions about military operations in the Caribbean and for the SOUTHCOM Commander to testify on these matters.”

“Never before in my over 20 years on the committee can I recall seeing a combatant commander leave their post this early and amid such turmoil,” the Democrat continued. “I have also never seen such a staggering lack of transparency on behalf of an Administration and the Department to meaningfully inform Congress on the use of lethal military force.”

The commander Smith is referring to is former SOUTHCOM commander Alvin Holsey, who resigned from his position just one year into his three-year term earlier this month after speaking out against the vessel strikes. Holsey was responsible for overseeing all military action south of Mexico, including the Caribbean Sea.

SOUTHCOM Commander Alvin Holsey resigned from his position earlier this month after speaking out against the vessel strikes. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Of the more than three-dozen people targeted in the strikes, only two survivors have been rescued. The administration last week made the unusual decision to return both men to their home countries. Ecuadorian officials said shortly after one of the citizens was returned, they were released, saying that they had no evidence he committed a crime in their country. A Colombian citizen also survived the attack and remains hospitalized after being repatriated.

The escalation in military strikes against alleged drug boats comes as the Pentagon faces a major overhaul. In the last two weeks, virtually every media outlet had their press credentials rescinded after refusing to sign on to Hegseth’s new restrictive press policy.

The media outlets to agree to the Pentagon’s new policy, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post, include right-wing outlets like streaming service LindellTV (started by MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Mike Lindell) and websites including The Gateway Pundit, The Post Millennial, Human Events and The National Pulse. The draft also included Turning Point USA’s media brand Frontlines, influencer Tim Pool’s “Timcast,” a Substack-based newsletter called Washington Reporter and several unnamed “independent” journalists.

In addition to the press changes, the Pentagon also released new guidance for all Pentagon personnel, requiring them to coordinate interactions with Congress through the building’s central legislative-affairs office.