The Trump administration has expanded its campaign of lethal boat bombings into the Pacific Ocean, marking a new phase in what critics are calling an “unlawful extrajudicial killing” spree carried out without congressional authorization or legal justification.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday night that President Donald Trump had approved “a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a designated terrorist organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.” Hegseth said the strike killed two people aboard the boat. Hours later, he confirmed that another strike on Wednesday killed three more people, bringing the total death toll from the series of attacks to at least 37.
The latest attacks represent the ninth and tenth known U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-running boats since the campaign began last month. The previous seven took place in the Caribbean, killing at least 34 people.
“This is murder,” wrote journalist Conor Friedersdorf, describing the attacks as “another unlawful extrajudicial killing of a boat our military could have stopped and investigated.” He added, “Even when convicted drug smugglers go to court, they don’t get the death penalty. This is immoral.”
Hegseth’s public statements drew direct parallels between Trump’s “war on cartels” and the U.S. “war on terror” launched after the September 11 attacks. “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” he said, adding, “there will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.” Later, he referred to the alleged drug-runners as “the ‘Al Qaeda’ of our hemisphere.”
Trump has asserted that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, labeling them unlawful combatants and invoking the same legal authority used by the George W. Bush administration for counterterrorism operations.
Asked about the most recent strike, Trump said, “We have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that.” He also indicated that similar strikes “could eventually come on land.”
“We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” he 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.”
Critics say the administration’s legal claims have no basis in domestic or international law. Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote, “Trump’s rationale for his repeated murders at sea don’t hold water. There is no ‘self-defense’ because no one is attacking the United States. There is no ’armed conflict’ because there are no hostilities approaching a war.”
Jill Wine-Banks, former Watergate prosecutor and general counsel of the Army, warned that Trump’s expanding maritime campaign is dangerous and unlawful. “He must be stopped,” she wrote. “This is illegal and endangers America.”
The Trump administration’s strikes have sparked outrage in Latin America, where at least one confirmed civilian was killed in a previous attack. Colombian President Gustavo Petro said the U.S. military had “committed a murder” after Colombian citizen Alejandro Carranza, who had been out on a fishing trip, was killed during a strike off the Venezuelan coast.
In response, Trump lashed out at Petro, calling him “an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs,” and announced new tariffs on Colombian goods.
Journalist Mark Jacob said he doubted the strikes were truly about stopping drug smuggling. “The Trump regime lies all the time,” he wrote. “A more likely explanation for these attacks is U.S. imperialism: Trump wants to overthrow Maduro in Venezuela (with vast oil reserves) and intimidate Colombia (which criticized previous attacks).”
The Pentagon has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and waters near Venezuela in recent months, fueling speculation that Trump could be preparing to escalate pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces U.S. narcoterrorism charges.
Lawmakers in both parties have demanded greater transparency about the operations, but the administration has provided little information.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “alarmed and angry” about the lack of oversight. “Expanding the geography simply expands the lawlessness and the recklessness in the use of the American military without seeming legal or practical justification,” he said.
Blumenthal argued that the U.S. should be stopping the boats and interrogating suspects “not just destroy the smugglers who are likely to be at the bottom of the smuggling chain.”
Despite the mounting criticism, some Republican lawmakers have defended the administration. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the strikes and was satisfied with the administration’s justification.
“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.”
Rubio himself defended the campaign, saying, “If people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop sending drugs to the United States.”
Videos released by Hegseth show small boats moving quickly through the water before exploding in fireballs. In one video, brown packages are visible aboard the vessel before the blast; in another, debris and floating packages are seen afterward.
The administration has not released any evidence linking the destroyed boats to terrorist organizations or confirmed whether the deceased were involved in narcotics trafficking. Two survivors from an earlier strike were repatriated to Ecuador and Colombia. Ecuadorian authorities later said they released one of them because “they had no evidence he committed a crime.”
The attacks have also drawn scrutiny for targeting alleged smugglers rather than apprehending them. The U.S. has longstanding procedures for intercepting drug boats through the Coast Guard and joint interdiction operations, which typically involve arresting suspects and seizing contraband rather than executing lethal strikes.
“The way to target trafficking,” Blumenthal said, “would be stopping the boats and interrogating those aboard to find the source of the drugs.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the strikes save American lives. “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,” he told reporters.
Administration officials have described the maritime operations as necessary to combat fentanyl and cocaine smuggling, though data show most fentanyl enters the U.S. by land through Mexico. The eastern Pacific, where the most recent strikes occurred, is primarily a corridor for cocaine trafficking from Colombia and Peru, with Ecuador serving as a key transit point.
Despite the administration’s claims, human rights advocates warn the expanding campaign risks further civilian casualties and international instability.
“Trump’s rationale for his repeated murders at sea don’t hold water,” Roth reiterated. “There is no self-defense because no one is attacking the United States.”
With growing bipartisan unease and regional backlash, the administration has offered no clear legal documentation or end goal for its maritime offensive. The White House has not confirmed whether it will seek congressional authorization before proceeding with potential land-based strikes.
As the death toll rises and the strikes expand into new waters, critics say the administration is setting a dangerous precedent for unaccountable warfare.
“Expanding the geography simply expands the lawlessness,” Blumenthal warned. “And the recklessness in the use of the American military without seeming legal or practical justification.”
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