FORT BENNING, Ga. — Only days after President Trump announced that U.S. military forces destroyed a drug-carrying boat that had left Venezuela, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said the mission was not a “one-off” and that other narco-traffickers heading to the U.S. could be targeted.
U.S. officials said the strike killed 11 members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuela-based criminal gang that the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. The White House said the boat was in international waters when it was bombed.
“We smoked a drug boat, and there are 11 narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean,” Mr. Hegseth told The Washington Times during a one-day visit to this Army base. “When other people try to do that, they’re going to meet the same fate.”
The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro denied the U.S. claims and said the video of the strike released by the White House was an artificial intelligence ruse.
Mr. Hegseth said, “We knew exactly who they were, exactly what they were doing, what they represented, and why they were going where they were going. We have plenty of ways to determine who we know who is who.”
He said 100,000 Americans were killed each year under the Biden administration because of “an open border and open drug traffic flow.”
The practice amounted to an assault on the American people, he said, adding that organized narcotics organizations are on the same level as al Qaeda and will be treated as such during the Trump administration.
“Every boatload of any form of drugs that poisons the American people is an imminent threat,” Mr. Hegseth said. “At the [Department of Defense], our job is to defeat enemy threats.”
He noted that the authority to destroy a suspected narcotics-trafficking vessel operating in international waters will be held at the highest levels because of the strategic implications. He added that his goal is to push down to the operational level as much authority as possible to authorize deadly force in certain circumstances.
“We have great trust in our Navy, in our special operators, in our Army and our Air Force, and others to make those decisions. They’ll make them effectively,” he said.
Speaking to a group of junior Army officers at a Fort Benning dining facility, Mr. Hegseth said Mr. Trump tasked him with rebuilding the military and focusing on the basics.
“And then reestablishing deterrence so that when the enemy sees an American, they don’t want to f—- with us,” he said. “Because they know they’ll get the business end of the best warrior on the planet.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.