The U.S. military expanded its crackdown on drug trafficking in South America with a strike on Wednesday, marking the ninth attack on a suspected drug-laden vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean. This operation, which resulted in the deaths of three individuals, was announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It signals an escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to combat drug smuggling in the region.

Just a day earlier, another strike in the same area resulted in two fatalities, Hegseth shared via social media. These recent actions shift the focus from previous operations that predominantly targeted vessels in the Caribbean Sea. Since the campaign began last month, at least 37 individuals have lost their lives as a result of these military actions.

The operations signify not only a geographical expansion of U.S. military efforts but also a strategic shift to the eastern Pacific, a known route for cocaine trafficking from some of the world’s largest producers. In his social media updates, Hegseth drew a parallel between the current anti-drug efforts and the post-9/11 war on terrorism, underscoring the administration’s determination.

“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Hegseth stated, emphasizing that there would be no leniency, only “justice” for those involved in drug trafficking.

Later in the day, Hegseth intensified his rhetoric by labeling the drug traffickers as the “Al Qaeda of our hemisphere.”

President Donald Trump, a Republican, has defended these military strikes by framing them as part of an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. He has classified these organizations as unlawful combatants, invoking the same legal grounds used by President George W. Bush’s administration during the war on terror.

Trump says strikes on land could be next

Asked about the latest boat attack, Trump insisted that “we have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that.” He said similar strikes could eventually come on land.

“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”

Lawmakers from both political parties have expressed concerns about Trump ordering the military actions without receiving authorization from Congress or providing many details.

Appearing alongside Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended such strikes, saying, “If people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop sending drugs to the United States.”

Trump said the strikes he is ordering are meant to save Americans and “the only way you can’t feel bad about it … is that you realize that every time you see that happen, you’re saving 25,000 lives.”

Targeting a boat in a thoroughfare for cocaine smuggling

In the first brief video Hegseth posted Wednesday, a small boat, half-filled with brown packages, is seen moving along the water. Several seconds into the video, the boat explodes and is seen floating motionless on the water in flames.

The second video shows another boat moving quickly before being struck by an explosion. Video apparently recorded after the explosion shows packages floating in the water.

The U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off the coast of Venezuela since this summer, raising speculation that Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.

In his posts on the strikes, Trump has repeatedly argued that illegal narcotics and the drug fentanyl carried by the vessels have been poisoning Americans.

While the bulk of American overdose deaths are from fentanyl, the drug is transported by land from Mexico. Venezuela is a major drug transit zone, but the eastern Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean, is the primary area for smuggling cocaine.

Colombia and Peru, countries with coastlines on the eastern Pacific, are the world’s top cocaine producers. Wedged between them is Ecuador, whose world-class ports and myriad maritime shipping containers filled with bananas have become the perfect vehicle for drug traffickers to move their product.

The administration has sidestepped prosecuting any occupants of alleged drug-running vessels after returning two survivors of an earlier strike to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia.

Ecuadorian officials later said they released the man who was returned because they had no evidence he committed a crime in their country.

Questions from Congress as strikes continue

Some Republican lawmakers have asked the White House for more clarification on its legal justification and specifics on how the strikes are conducted, while Democrats insist they are violations of U.S. and international law.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was alarmed and angry about a lack of information on the strikes.

“Expanding the geography simply expands the lawlessness and the recklessness in the use of the American military without seeming legal or practical justification,” Blumenthal said.

He said the way to target trafficking would be stopping the boats and interrogating those aboard to find the source of the drugs, “not just destroy the smugglers who are likely to be at the bottom of the smuggling chain.”

The Republican-controlled Senate recently voted down a Democratic-sponsored war powers resolution, mostly along party lines, that would have required the president to seek authorization from Congress before further military strikes.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he’s met with Rubio.

“He has researched the legal ramifications carefully and he believes we’re on solid ground in attacking these narcoterrorists,” Kennedy said. “I trust his judgment.”

___

Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Kevin Freking in Washington and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.