Six smugglers linked to a notorious Venezuelan gang won’t be returning to shore after a precision U.S. military strike in the Caribbean Sea ordered by President Trump.
According to Breitbart, in a historic first, the U.S. military launched a nighttime kinetic operation in international waters, eliminating a narco-terrorist crew from the Tren de Aragua without sustaining a single American casualty.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth made the announcement Friday, confirming that the strike destroyed a smuggling vessel known to be transporting narcotics along a well-documented trafficking corridor.
Strike Was the First of Its Kind
This marks the ninth such operation since the president began his maritime crackdown on narco-terrorism in early September, an expansion that now spans both the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
“Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters, and was the first strike at night in the Caribbean Sea,” Hegseth said. “All six terrorists were killed, and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
The targeted individuals were reportedly members of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal syndicate designated as a foreign terrorist organization under a Trump administration executive order.
Cracking Down on Dangerous Networks
Hegseth was blunt about the administration’s approach: “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” he said. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.” This no-nonsense strategy has already resulted in a rising tally: 40 smugglers killed since the campaign began on Sept. 2, when another Venezuelan vessel was hit, killing 11 aboard. The intelligence community had flagged the latest target well in advance, confirming the vessel’s route and cargo as aligned with known narcotics smuggling operations.
Building Momentum Across The Hemisphere
While the latest strike occurred in Caribbean waters, just days earlier, a similar operation was carried out in the Eastern Pacific Ocean off Colombia’s coast—showing the increasing reach of this effort under Trump’s wartime directive.
The current count—40 dead narcotics traffickers—didn’t come from careless overreach or surprise raids but carefully coordinated intelligence and military planning. Adding to the transparency, thermal video footage of the strike has been released by the Defense Department, revealing the precision of the aerial ordinance used to obliterate the vessel in darkness.
An Assertive Response to Narco-Terrorism
There’s a reason left-leaning bureaucrats have kept quiet about these operations: they work, and they send a very clear message. Criminal groups like Tren de Aragua—shielded by failed states and radical regimes—are learning fast that impunity ends at sea.
When the radical left talks about “compassionate alternatives” to criminal justice, they should be reminded that cartels don’t listen to peace talks. They respond to force—and in international waters, there are no sanctuary cities. This administration’s willingness to take morally serious, proportionate, and effective military action is a marked contrast to the bureaucratic softness we’ve seen in previous years.
Clarity, Courage, and No Apologies
Challenges like this aren’t new—but the seriousness with which they’re now being addressed certainly is. Identifying smuggling vessels and neutralizing threats before they reach American ports? That’s leadership, not rhetoric.
Secretary Hegseth summed it up best: “The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.” Short on spin, long on results.
In a world full of appeasement and press releases, actions like these speak volumes. The message to terrorist organizations cozying up to drug cartels? Your night game just got canceled.
