(MENAFN) U.S. forces struck four vessels accused of narcotics trafficking in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, carrying out three separate attacks that killed 14 people, a Pentagon official said on Tuesday.

In a post on X, the defense secretary stated: “Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific.”

According to the official account, intelligence had identified the boats as traveling established smuggling corridors and believed them to be transporting illegal drugs. The strikes reportedly hit three different targets: the first boat had eight men aboard, the second four, and the third three. Fourteen people described as narco-terrorists were killed and one person survived. “All strikes were in international waters with no US forces harmed,” the statement added.

Military authorities said their southern command activated routine search-and-rescue procedures to assist the lone survivor, with Mexican rescue services accepting responsibility for coordinating the on-scene effort.

The defense secretary framed the operation as part of a shift in priorities: “The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own,” he wrote. He further warned: “These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.”

Officials described the strikes as the most recent phase of an administration push targeting maritime drug trafficking, which the government has labeled “narco-terrorism.”

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