President Donald Trump on Sept. 15, 2025, ordered a second U.S. military strike on a vessel in the Caribbean that his administration said was carrying Venezuelan drug traffickers, killing three people the president described as "narcoterrorists." The White House said the vessel was operating in international waters and was transporting "massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people." Officials said there were no U.S. casualties.
Trump posted the announcement on his social media platform, writing that "On my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists," and later adding that the trafficked narcotics were a "deadly weapon" responsible for poisoning Americans. The president said the strike killed three male individuals he identified as terrorists and warned other traffickers that U.S. forces were actively pursuing smuggling networks.
The strike comes less than 24 hours after Trump warned he might authorize additional attacks following an earlier U.S. Navy operation in early September that the president said killed 11 people aboard another vessel used by traffickers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly defended the initial strike, saying U.S. forces "knew exactly what they were doing and who they represented," according to White House statements.
The administration has so far not released forensic or intelligence evidence publicly linking the vessels targeted in the two strikes to drug shipments. A person described by the Daily Mail as familiar with the operation told that outlet the U.S. "did not even know if there were drugs on the boat," a statement that conflicts with the administration's public assertions. That source also said the earlier strike was designed to "elicit a response from Maduro and provoke him," a charge that the Venezuelan government has denied.
Legal and diplomatic questions have followed the strikes. The use of force in international waters against foreign nationals raises complex issues under international law, including the law of the sea and norms governing the use of force. International law scholars and former government officials have said such operations typically hinge on clear evidence of an imminent threat or explicit authorization, and the administration has not publicly described the legal basis for either strike.
U.S. officials framed the operations as interdiction efforts against transnational criminal organizations that pose a threat to American public health and security. In statements, the White House characterized the cartels as "extremely violent" and accused traffickers of contributing to overdose deaths and other harms inside the United States. The strikes follow months of increasingly confrontational rhetoric from the administration toward Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government, which the United States has long accused of facilitating illicit trafficking.
The Venezuelan government has previously condemned U.S. military actions and described them as violations of sovereignty; it has denied state involvement in trafficking. There was no immediate public response from Caracas to Tuesday's strike. Analysts said the attacks risk further escalating tensions in the region and could complicate diplomatic efforts to address drug flows through a mix of law enforcement, interdiction and regional cooperation.
The Trump administration has not provided independent verification in the public domain that the targeted vessels carried narcotics or that those killed were members of designated terrorist groups. Congressional leaders and international partners may seek additional information as questions persist about the intelligence underpinning the operations and the legal justification for strikes in international waters.