This post has been clarified to show the number of strikes against suspected Narco boats. As of this post, the Pentagon has made 14 announcements accounting for 16 strikes on 17 boats.
The U.S. conducted its 16th strike on a vessel allegedly carrying illicit narcotics, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday via social media platform X.
The strike, which was on a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killed the two people aboard. The fatal strike brings the total number of deaths in U.S. strikes on suspected drug traffickers to 67. This is the second such strike in November and the 14th since President Donald Trump announced the first one in September.
There have been two survivors in the 14 strikes. Two survivors from an Oct. 16 strike were repatriated to their countries. The Mexican Navy conducted search and rescue operations to find a survivor from an Oct. 25, but the search was suspended Saturday after the navy combed the Pacific for 96 hours, USNI News previously reported.
Hegseth’s announcement said the strike was against an unspecified designated terrorist organization and did not include the country of origin. Hegseth’s post said the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics but did not specify what kind.
The leading cause of overdose deaths in the U.S. are synthetic opioids, mainly illegally manufactured fentanyl, according to the most recent data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.
The majority of deaths from other drugs, like cocaine, are due to the narcotics being mixed with fentanyl. Drug deaths, including from fentanyl, slowly dropped since 2023, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, which also noted that the U.S. supply of fentanyl often comes from China and Mexico.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have raised questions about the strikes, including after the Pentagon met with the armed services committees in both chambers of Congress. Congressional members have also expressed frustration with Hegseth’s Pentagon over the new restrictions for information that would require Defense Department officials to coordinate all interactions with Congress through the office of the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs.
On Friday, Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) released two letters that they had sent to Hegseth requesting additional information on the strikes, including the execute orders and the designated terrorist organizations targeted. The letters have gone unanswered, according to a joint press release.
The White House told Congress in early October that the administration determined the alleged traffickers are “unlawful combatants” and the drug trade was an “armed attack against the United States, according to a memo to lawmakers. The administration said the strikes are military self-defense operations under U.S. Title 10.
