US launches new attack against boat in the Caribbean suspected of trafficking drugs

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Sunday (19) that the country carried out an attack on Friday (17) against a ship that US intelligence authorities believed was involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Caribbean. Hegseth wrote in a post on X that the vessel was affiliated with a Colombian terrorist organization and had ‘substantial amounts of narcotics’ on board. He said the three men on board were all killed and no American forces were injured. This is the seventh known attack in a series of recent US military strikes against vessels that, according to the Trump administration, are involved in drug trafficking. The attack comes days after another strike on a suspected drug boat, which, according to CNN, appeared to be the first time an attack did not kill everyone on board. ‘These cartels are the Al-Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder, and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security, and poison our people,’ wrote Hegseth. ‘The US Armed Forces will treat these organizations as the terrorists they are — they will be hunted down and killed, just like Al-Qaeda.’