US Hits 8th Suspected Drug Boat, First in Pacific

The United States reportedly carried out its eighth strike against an alleged drug-smuggling vessel Tuesday night, this time off the Pacific coast of South America.

At least two aboard the vessel were killed in the attack — the first outside the Caribbean, where the previous seven strikes occurred since Sept. 2 — sources told CBS News.

The White House pointed to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's 1:28 pm ET X post when asked for comment on the 8th drug boat strike.

It reads: "Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific.

"The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics. There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.

"Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere. Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice."

At least 34 people have died in the U.S. operations targeting suspected narcotics traffickers.

The Trump administration has told Congress the strikes are part of a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels, arguing their smuggling activities constitute an "armed attack" that kills tens of thousands of Americans annually.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has rebuked the killing of drug traffickers by the U.S. military under President Donald Trump, saying arbitrarily bombing drug boats "2,000 miles away" goes "against all of our tradition."

"When you kill someone if you're not in war, and not in a declared war, you really need to know someone's name, at least," Paul told host Kristen Welker on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "You have to accuse them of something and you have to present evidence. All of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name and without evidence of a crime.

"And for decades, and if not centuries, when you stop people at sea in international waters or in your own waters you announce that you're going to board the ship and you're looking for contraband, smuggling or drugs.

"This happens every day off of Miami, but we know from Coast Guard statistics that, about 25% of the time the Coast Guard boards a ship, there are no drugs. So if our policy now is to blow up every ship we suspect or accuse of drug running, that would be a bizarre world in which 25% of the people might be innocent."

Paul also questioned the vast distance of drug-trafficking actions the military is taking.

"The other thing about these speedboats is they're 2,000 miles away from us," Paul continued. "If they have drugs, they're probably peddling drugs to one of the islands of Trinidad and Tobago off Venezuela.

"The idea of them coming here is a huge assumption, and we should be able to present some proof. It is the difference between war and peace. In war, though, you don't ask people's name.

"But if they want all-out war where we kill anybody and everybody that is in the country of Venezuela that are coming out, that has to have a declaration of war.

"It's something that is not pretty, very expensive and I'm not in favor of declaring war on Venezuela, but the Congress should vote. The president shouldn't do this by himself."