The U.S. military destroyed a boat carrying Venezuelan smugglers from the Tren de Aragua drug cartel on Wednesday. The attack in the Caribbean Sea, which killed 11 narcotraffickers, was justified. It was also aligned with President Donald Trump‘s preference for military actions that avoid quagmire-like wars.

Amid hyperventilating media coverage suggesting this strike was illegal under international law, we should first observe why this military action was justified. First, Tren de Aragua is a legally designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for killing hundreds of innocent civilians across Latin America and on U.S. soil. Based in Venezuela but with a presence across Latin America and the continental United States, the group is enabled by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who receives monetary compensation in return for his support.

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Via its U.S. operations, Tren de Aragua engages in relentless violent intimidation against American citizens and residents. Indeed, the grotesque quality of this intimidation became a political issue during the 2024 presidential election when Trump pointed out Tren de Aragua’s seizure of various apartment complexes in Colorado. While biased media reporting suggested Trump was exaggerating the situation, he was later proved correct.

The record also shows that Tren de Aragua has little patience for observing basic norms that other organized criminal gangs in the U.S. observe. According to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report last summer, for example, the group authorized its members to kill American police officers. And of course, Tren de Aragua is responsible for smuggling and selling large quantities of illegal drugs that ruin American lives and destabilize American communities.

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To that end, the organization has forged cooperative alliances with other powerful Latin American drug trafficking organizations such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. As the Washington Examiner recently reported, the Mexican cartel now directly threatens Mexico’s democratic sovereignty. These organizations use extraordinary brutality at scale to coerce or kill their way to impunity and power. They also often maintain relationships with foreign terrorist organizations such as the Lebanese Hezbollah. Put simply, these groups pose a clear threat to U.S. national security. They demand and deserve punitive confrontation.

In terms of the specific justification for this boat strike, it should go without saying that the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard lack the capacity to patrol hundreds of millions of square kilometers of water and arrest every drug trafficker they come across. Moreover, cartel smugglers utilize sophisticated deception tactics and, where possible, hide among civilian populations. Had this small boat reached its first offload location, military targeting may have become impossible due to civilian casualty concerns. In the same way, the boat’s drug payload may have been lost in the smuggling network forever. Forever, that is, until it eventually ended up with the armed gangs that wage daily warfare on American streets for sale-point control of this poisonous trade. That end result of Tren de Aragua’s activities might not concern liberals in Georgetown or the Hollywood Hills, but it certainly concerns poor, and often minority, Americans living in places such as southeast Washington, D.C., and South Side Chicago.

Put simply, this strike manifestly served American interests. It also fits well with the president’s developing national security doctrine.

Trump has often made clear that he opposes what he describes as “stupid wars,” which lock America into seemingly endless conflicts at high costs of blood and treasure. Still, as with his first-term strikes in response to Syrian chemical weapons attacks, his order to eliminate Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and his more recent strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, Trump has shown a willingness to use sharp bursts of military force to achieve specific effects. Multiple military and intelligence operations officers have also told the Washington Examiner that the president has a far greater tolerance than either former Presidents Joe Biden or Barack Obama for authorizing covert actions addressing specific threats to the nation.

Yes, it bears noting that each American use of force carries with it the risk of escalation that might provoke a more drawn-out conflict. The president is surely aware of this. Nevertheless, Trump has successfully mitigated this concern by leveraging perceptions of his own unpredictability. Following the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, for example, Trump noted that he had resisted plans to target Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but would not hesitate to do so if Iran launched any major retaliation against U.S. interests. Iran got the message and backed down.

Will Tren de Aragua get the same message?

Likely not in the short term. Certainly, the drug smuggling trade to the U.S. won’t end until the vast demand and lucrative profits associated with that trade end. And that will require an as-yet-absent American social and cultural reawakening. It’s possible that Tren de Aragua and other narcotrafficking groups will begin to launch attacks on American interests in an attempt to pressure the Trump administration to back off. But it’s also possible that in facing a large U.S. Navy and Marine Corps task force just off his coast, Maduro will start cooperating with the U.S. counter-drug efforts.

What if the cartels retaliate against America?

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If that occurs, Trump must be ready to use merciless force against the traffickers’ bases, resources, leadership, and enablers in foreign governments and money laundering corporations such as banks. The U.S. has a range of untapped military and intelligence resources that could be employed to wreak devastation on these groups and their enablers. Maduro and members of Mexico’s ruling Morena party should be particularly concerned here. But so also should others further afield, such as Albania’s Edi Rama. While a NATO ally on paper, Rama has turned his country into a drug depot.

Trump has now made abundantly clear that he regards drug cartels as posing a preeminent threat to the nation. Those who participate in this evil enterprise have now been put on overdue notice. No longer is there a choice between a high probability of vast earnings and a low risk of long prison sentences. Now they must fear surprise elimination.

The president deserves praise for taking action.