Pete Hegseth says new U.S. strike on alleged drug boat killed 4 people in Pacific Ocean

The defense secretary's announcement marks the 14th known strike that the U.S. has conducted on alleged drug traffickers in recent months.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the Pentagon carried out another "lethal kinetic strike" at President Donald Trump's direction on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that killed four men.

"Earlier today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on yet another narco-trafficking vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) in the Eastern Pacific," Hegseth wrote on X, using the Defense Department’s secondary title.

It's the 14th known time the Trump administration has launched a military strike against alleged drug-carrying boats in recent months.

Hegseth defended Wednesday's strike the same way he did previous ones, saying the target “was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling." He has repeatedly said targeted vessels are traveling along a known drug-smuggling route and carrying narcotics when the United States conducts its strikes.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted images on X of a strike Wednesday on a vessel in the Eastern Pacific.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth via XHegseth said this week that the U.S. military conducted three strikes Monday on four vessels in the same area that killed 14 people, whom he similarly described as "narco-terrorists."