US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced a military strike on a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, resulting in the deaths of four people on board, Reuters reported. Hegseth, acting as Pentagon chief under the Donald Trump administration, claimed he had received full authority for such operations, which the administration classifies as part of an "armed conflict" with Latin American cartels.

According to Hegseth, the attack targeted a vessel carrying "a significant quantity of drugs destined for the United States to poison the American people." He emphasized that intelligence confirmed "without a doubt" the crew's involvement in the activities of "narco-terrorists" associated with organizations designated as terrorists.

This is the fourth such incident in recent weeks, during which, according to American sources, at least 17 people on similar vessels in the Caribbean Sea have been killed. The strike took place in international waters off the Venezuelan coast, prompting a sharp reaction from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who called it a "war crime" against civilians and threatened to declare a state of emergency if further escalation occurred.