Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on September 30. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/File

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Sunday that the US conducted a strike Friday on a ship that American intelligence officials believed was involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Caribbean.

Hegseth wrote in a post on X that the vessel was affiliated with a Colombian terrorist organization and had “substantial amounts of narcotics” on board. He said the three men on the ship were all killed and no US forces were harmed.

This is the seventh known strike in a series of recent attacks by the US military on vessels that the Trump administration says are involved in drug trafficking. It comes days after another strike on an alleged d

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