Pentaon has confirmed that US forces have attacked another ship suspected of carrying drugs, this time in Pacific waters.
Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said two people on board the ship were killed. No American military personnel were injured.
The vessel was known to US intelligence and was believed to be transporting drugs along a known trafficking route in international waters, Hegseth added.
The strike was the eighth US strike on suspected drug vessels since September 2, but the first in the Caribbean.
Video of the impact shows the long blue speedboat moving through the water before it was struck by the US ruling.
“Narco-terrorists intent on gaining a foothold on our shores will find safe haven anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Just as al-Qaeda wages war on our homeland, these cartels wage war on our border and our people.”
“There will be no refuge, no forgiveness – only justice,” he added.
In a leaked memo recently sent to US lawmakers, the Trump administration said it had determined it was engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug trafficking organizations.
At least 36 people have been killed in US strikes on suspected drug ships, including a recent strike on a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean.
Two men survived last week's strike and were repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador.
The Ecuadorian government later released him, identified as Andres Fernando Tufiño, saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing. Another man from Colombia reportedly remains in hospital.
US President Donald Trump and administration officials have repeatedly justified the strikes as counter-drug measures needed to combat drug trafficking organizations, some of which have been designated terrorist organizations by the US.
The location of the final impact and the origin of the vessel remain unclear.
However, news of the strike comes amid growing tensions between the Trump administration and the Colombian government of President Gustavo Petro.
On Sunday, Trump denounced Petro as an “illegal drug leader” who “strongly encourages the mass production of drugs in fields large and small throughout Colombia.”
Trump added that the US would no longer offer subsidies to Colombia, which has historically been one of its closest allies in Latin America.
Both Colombia and neighboring Ecuador have significant Pacific coastlines, which experts say are used to transport drugs north into the United States, through Central America and Mexico.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimates that the vast majority of cocaine destined for U.S. cities passes through the Pacific Ocean.
Drug seizures in the Caribbean, where the bulk of confirmed U.S. strikes have occurred so far, account for a relatively small percentage of the total, although U.S. officials warn the figure is growing.
To date, U.S. officials have provided few details about the identities of those killed in the strikes or which drug trafficking organizations they are believed to belong to.
As part of the operation, about 10,000 American troops, as well as dozens of military aircraft and ships, were deployed to the Caribbean.
