U.S. military strikes more suspected drug-carrying vessels, Trump signals land operations ‘next’

Shortly after War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Oct. 22 that U.S. forces conducted two new strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in international waters, President Donald Trump said the U.S. campaign against drug traffickers could soon expand to land-based targets.

Hegseth said the military carried out the strikes on vessels that were “involved in illicit narcotics smuggling” and were traveling “along a known narco-trafficking route.”

“These strikes will continue, day after day,” Hegseth wrote on X. “These are not simply drug runners — these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities. These DTOs are the ‘Al Qaeda’ of our hemisphere and will not escape justice. We will find them and kill them, until the threat to the American people is extinguished.”

According to the Associated Press, the latest attack is the administration’s ninth strike on suspected drug-carrying vessels. Reuters reported that seven of the nine targeted ships were near Venezuela, while the two most recent occurred in the Pacific Ocean. Combined reports indicate the operations have so far killed 32 people. 

At the White House Oct. 22, Trump told reporters that cartels’ drug operations killed 300,000 Americans last year and warned the campaign may shift ashore. 

“They’ll be coming in by land a little bit more because they’re not coming in by boat anymore,” Trump said. “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land. And they haven’t experienced that yet. But now we’re totally prepared to do that.”

The next day, Trump repeated the threat: “They are coming in by land. I told them, that’s next. The land is next. We may go to Congress and tell them, but I can’t imagine they’d have a problem.”

When asked whether he would seek a formal declaration of war from Congress, Trump replied, “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We’re going to kill them.” 

The controversial strikes coincide with a U.S. military buildup across the Caribbean, reportedly part of the administration’s escalating campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. As CatholicVote reported Oct. 17, numerous reports have indicated that roughly 10,000 American troops are now stationed near Venezuela.

On Oct. 15, Trump appeared to confirm he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, CatholicVote reported. Asked in the Oval Office why he approved “the CIA to go into Venezuela,” Trump replied that leaders in the South American nation had “emptied their prisons” and trafficked drugs into the U.S.

The Trump administration’s approach has elicited some pushback. For instance, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., criticized the administration after, as AP reported, two survivors of an Oct. 16 U.S. military strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean were returned to their own countries (Ecuador and Colombia) instead of facing the American justice system.

“They were not detained, not checked for drugs, not prosecuted. They were sent back to be tried in their own country,” Paul wrote on X. “If the strike was based on the assumption that the boat was carrying drugs, and the survivors weren’t even investigated, do we suspect government simply didn’t have enough proof in the first place?”

Citing Coast Guard data that only one in four suspected drug boats actually carries narcotics, Paul told FOX News, “You cannot have a policy where you just allege that someone is guilty of something and just kill them.”

Paul also joined a bipartisan Senate resolution to block the administration under a federal law called the War Powers Resolution from “engag[ing] in hostilities” in Venezuela, arguing that only Congress can authorize war, CatholicVote reported Oct. 17.

According to the New York Times, Laura Loomer, who has informally advised Trump, suggested the recent moves undermine incentives for peace, while Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, recently asked on his podcast, “Is this just a breeding ground for neocon 3.0?”

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