(MENAFN) Six individuals were killed in a US military airstrike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, which was described by War Secretary Pete Hegseth as part of an anti-drug trafficking mission.

This strike is the latest in a series of American military actions in the Caribbean and Pacific, part of what President Donald Trump has referred to as a campaign to combat narcotics smuggling originating from Venezuela and Colombia—two countries that have strongly denied the accusations.

The attack took place in neutral waters late Thursday, when the Department of War carried out what Hegseth called a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel belonging to Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan transnational criminal organization. In a post on social media platform X, Hegseth declared, “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” pledging that US forces would continue to "hunt down" and eliminate more traffickers.

Just one day before the strike, Trump hailed a victory in the military’s ongoing efforts to target alleged Venezuelan “drug boats,” claiming that the flow of narcotics into the US had dramatically decreased to “like 5% of what they were a year ago.” He added that operations targeting drug smuggling on land would be next, though he provided no specifics about future targets or timing.

Both Venezuela and Colombia have condemned these operations, arguing that they are more about securing resources than combating drug trade. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has argued that the US operations are not truly focused on drug trafficking, but rather on exploiting Venezuela's rich oil and gas reserves. "They need oil [and] gas," Maduro stated, adding that the US had long sought control over Venezuela's vast energy and mineral resources.

MENAFN25102025000045017640ID1110246283