At least 37 people have now been killed in war-like campaign despite mounting questions about legal justification and evidence
Donald Trump’s administration has struck at least two alleged drug-carrying vessels, killing five people on board, in what appears to be the first attacks in the Pacific Ocean.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced two operations Wednesday that bring the death toll from the administration’s attacks to more than 30, as the United States declares itself at war with drug cartels in an expanding military campaign across South America.
A vessel struck down Tuesday “was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics,” according to Hegseth.
Two people were killed in Tuesday’s attack off Colombia’s coast, and another strike Wednesday killed three others, he said.
The latest strikes — believed to be the eighth and ninth attacks since September — raise the death toll from the administration’s attacks to at least 37 people, who Hegseth compared to the terror group behind 9/11.
“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth said Wednesday. “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”
Officials did not immediately identify the groups or country accused of running drugs in the Pacific.
Critics have argued the campaign amounts to illegal extrajudicial killings, while members of Congress and civil rights groups are pressing the administration for evidence and the legal memos shared among White House officials to justify the attacks.
