(MENAFN) US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday warned that drug-smuggling networks attempting to bring narcotics into the United States will face lethal consequences, as operations targeting suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific continue, according to reports.

Speaking at the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth said, “Right now, the world is seeing the strength of American resolve and stemming the flow of lethal drugs to our country. Here again, we've been focused and here we've been clear.” He added, “If you're working for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you and we will sink you. Let there be no doubt about it,” defending the strikes amid bipartisan scrutiny of their legality.

Hegseth emphasized that the US is prioritizing its campaign against cartels throughout the Western Hemisphere. “The days in which these narco-terrorists, designated terror organizations, operate freely in our hemisphere, are over. These narco-terrorists are the al-Qaeda of our hemisphere, and we are hunting them with the same sophistication and precision that we hunted al-Qaeda. We are tracking them, we are killing them, and we will keep killing them so long as they are poisoning our people with narcotics,” he said.

The Pentagon reported that, so far, 21 strikes have been carried out against alleged drug vessels, resulting in the deaths of 82 “narco-terrorists.” Hegseth noted that the campaign is supported by other governments in the hemisphere, which increasingly view cartel networks as shared adversaries.

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