U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Kimball crewmembers sink a drug smuggling vessel after stopping it and removing its crew in the eastern Pacific, March 23, 2025.

The U.S. military killed 11 alleged Tren da Aragua members aboard a suspected drug boat originating from Venezuela in the southern Caribbean on Sept. 2.

The move, announced by President Donald Trump during a press conference, marks a milestone in increasingly militarized U.S. counterdrug efforts in the region. Trump secretly authorized military force against drug cartels in early August.

Trump described the strike in a post on Truth Social.

"Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility," Trump said. "The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action."

Later in the day, the White House posted a grainy black and white "unclassified" video that purportedly shows the open boat on the high seas as it's being taken out in a military strike and then engulfed in flames. "ON VIDEO: U.S. Military Forces conducted a strike against Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists," the post on X said.

A sizeable U.S. armada currently sits afloat in the waters where the strike occurred. Four destroyers carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 4,500 Marines and sailors are deployed in the area.

Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, alleged to reporters Sept. 1 that the naval buildup indicates that Trump is "seeking regime change through military threat." He claimed his country's military is "super prepared" to face off with American troops if necessary.

Trump singled out Maduro in his Truth post, claiming that Tren de Aragua is "operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro." U.S. authorities are offering a $50 million reward for his arrest.

U.S. law enforcement and Coast Guard members have previously had deadly encounters at sea with drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

Trump's former Acting DEA Administrator Derek Maltz praised Trump for his administration’s launching of the military strike and told USA TODAY that a lethal U.S. attack on a cartel boat laden with drugs is rare if not unprecedented – and long overdue.

“I don’t know off the top of my head of any military strikes on boats that are loaded with drugs; I don't remember that in my time in the DEA,” said Maltz, who spent nearly 30 years at the DEA in leadership roles. “I'm not saying it didn't happen in terms of using DOD assets for something like this. We’ve worked very cooperatively with Colombia for years on training and military operations and different basically sensitive operations.”

“From my standpoint, it's a very significant event, but it's also very consistent with what President Trump has been wanting,” Maltz told USA TODAY. “I've been saying for many years that a law enforcement solution is not good enough to address these global terrorists operating in the Western Hemisphere. And this is no different than if it was Al Qaeda, ISIS or Hezbollah moving a boatload of chemical weapons.”

A White House official said they could not comment on what kind of intelligence or evidence was used to determine that those killed in the military strike were Tren de Aragua members. "These individuals were TdA narcoterrorists," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment by name. "We do not comment on matters of intelligence to the media."

Kenneth Roth, a Princeton School of Public and International Affairs professor and former Human Rights Watch executive director, criticized the strike.

"Drug trafficking is a crime, not an act of war," Roth said on X. "Traffickers must be arrested, not summarily executed, which U.S. forces just illegally did."

The Trump administration designated Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and other drug gangs as well as Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua as global terrorist organizations in February, as Trump stepped up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials said that meant the administration could now use the military to go after cartels, including with lethal force.

Contributing: Reuters; Joseph Garrison, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US military strikes alleged 'drug vessel' from Venezuela in Caribbean Sea, 11 killed

Reporting by Davis Winkie and Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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