"U.S. forces killed six alleged drug smugglers in the waters off Latin America on Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote on social media, pushing the death toll from President Donald Trump's counternarcotics campaign past 75. Hegseth said that separate U.S. attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean targeted two boats, each carrying three men. He described them as "cartel terrorists" but disclosed no evidence verifying that assertion or his claim that the vessels were hauling illicit drugs."
"U.S. intelligence had determined the vessels were "associated" with drug smuggling, Hegseth said, describing their positions as a "known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific." Colombia and Ecuador, which share a border along the Pacific Ocean, are known hubs for the Latin American drug trade. Sunday's attacks marked the 18th and 19th time since early September that U.S. military personnel have killed people in the waters off Latin America, according to public disclosures made by the Trump administration."
U.S. forces killed six alleged drug smugglers in waters off Latin America, raising the counternarcotics campaign death toll above 75. Secretary Pete Hegseth characterized the men as "cartel terrorists" and posted video, while offering no evidence verifying the claims or the presence of drugs. U.S. intelligence judged the vessels to be "associated" with drug smuggling along a known Eastern Pacific transit route near Colombia and Ecuador. The strikes were the 18th and 19th deadly actions since early September, including several off Venezuela, and have shifted interdiction from Coast Guard detentions to lethal military attacks. Law of war experts say the approach is illegal because small civilian vessels, not armed combatants, are being targeted.
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