(The Hill) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday announced there had been another U.S. strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat days prior.
“On October 17th, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel affiliated with Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), a Designated Terrorist Organization, that was operating in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Hegseth said in a post on the social platform X.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was traveling along a known narco-trafficking route, and was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics,” he added.
According to Hegseth, the strike happened in international waters and the three passengers who were on the vessel were killed. Hegseth’s post also featured video of a boat moving through water, with an explosion occurring shortly after.
The U.S. military has conducted multiple strikes aimed at alleged narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea in recent months, killing dozens of people in the process. The president recently declared the U.S. is now involved in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that the White House calls terrorist groups, providing legal rationale for the military actions. Ejército de Liberación Nacional is a Colombian armed group.
On Sunday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that recent strikes “go against all our traditions” in the U.S.
“When you kill someone, you should know, if you’re not at war, not in a declared war, you really need to know someone’s name at least,” Paul said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
“You have to accuse them of something. You have to present evidence. So all of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime,” he added.
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