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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (right) attends a bilateral summit between President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House Cabinet Room in Washington, D.C., on October 20. / Reuters–Yonhap

The U.S. military has destroyed a drug smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean for the first time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday, marking a geographic expansion of America’s ongoing campaign against cartel-linked maritime trafficking networks.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Hegseth said the Department of War—the term used by the Trump administration for the Pentagon—“carried out a lethal kinetic strike yesterday (Oct. 21) on a vessel operated by a designated terrorist organization engaged in narcotics trafficking, under direct orders from President Donald Trump.”

He added that U.S. intelligence agencies had confirmed the ship was carrying illegal narcotics and was traveling along a well-known smuggling route. “Two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed during the operation in international waters,” he said, “and there were no U.S. casualties.”

Hegseth also released a video showing a small craft moving through the ocean before suddenly exploding into flames.

The United States has previously destroyed seven cartel-operated smuggling boats in the Caribbean, including off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, but this was the first such strike conducted in the Pacific Ocean.

“Drug traffickers trying to bring poison to our shores will find no safe haven anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth declared. “Just as al-Qaeda once declared war on our homeland, these cartels are now waging war against our borders and our people. There will be no refuge, no forgiveness—only justice.”

Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that President Trump had approved a CIA-led operation in Venezuela targeting narcotics and paramilitary networks linked to President Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Analysts say the move paves the way for U.S. and CIA operations to expand beyond the sea into land-based missions.