The US military killed two alleged drug smugglers in a strike against a vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday.

Axar.az informs, citing Reuters, the strike is the first known US military operation in the Pacific since President Donald Trump started a new military offensive against the drug trade that has led to at least seven strikes in the Caribbean and dramatically raised US tensions with Venezuela and Colombia.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said, without providing evidence. He posted a roughly 30-second video on X, which appeared to show a vessel traveling in the water before exploding.

Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.

The… pic.twitter.com/PEaKmakivD

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 23, 2025