U.S. Destroys Three Suspected Narco-Terrorist Boats On Presidents’ Day

The United States military, under the command of President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, took out three boats suspected of trafficking drugs on Monday, killing 11 “male narco-terrorists,” according to U.S. Southern Command.

The kinetic strikes targeted two boats in the Eastern Pacific and one boat in the Caribbean. U.S. Southern Command said that the suspected drug-runners were “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” On Tuesday, the U.S. military shared unclassified video footage of all three strikes.

“Turns out President’s Day — under President Trump — is not a good day to run drugs,” said War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

With the latest strikes, at least 145 suspected drug runners have been killed in 42 strikes targeting “narcoterrorist” boats in the Pacific and Caribbean since last September. Monday’s operations followed a strike on Friday that destroyed a boat and killed three suspected drug smugglers.

President Donald Trump has defended his authority to carry out the strikes as Democrats argue that Congress must be given a say in the military operations being conducted without a declaration of war. Some Democrats have even claimed that Trump’s boat strikes in international waters amount to murder. Trump, however, has not backed down on his vow to obliterate suspected drug boats and argues that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that seek to transport deadly substances into the United States.

Shortly after the United States began conducting strikes against suspected drug traffickers, Trump said in a speech at the United Nations, “To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence.”

Responding to criticism from lawmakers over the strikes in October, Trump told reporters, “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, OK? We’re going to kill them.”

Trump has also suggested that the United States could target suspected narco-terrorists on land, which he said could include strikes inside Mexico and Colombia.

The U.S. strikes were further scrutinized by some lawmakers late last year after it was revealed that the U.S. military conducted a second strike on one boat in early September after some of the suspected narco-terrorists survived the first attack. The War Department has not publicly released the footage of the second strike and has only shown a select few lawmakers footage of the “double tap” strike.

Trump’s military campaign against drug traffickers led to the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro last month.

Maduro, who was accused of conspiring to traffic drugs to the United States, raged against the U.S. strikes in the Caribbean and vowed to fight U.S. forces if the United States made a move on Venezuela.

Following his capture, Maduro was charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy, and he now awaits trial in New York.