“All strikes were in international waters with no US forces harmed,” said Hegseth, adding that President Trump ordered the operations targeting what he called “Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific.”

Hegseth claimed the four vessels were “known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics.”

According to the secretary, eight male narco-terrorists were killed aboard the first vessel, four aboard the second, and three aboard the third.

A lone survivor was being sought by Mexican authorities after US Southern Command initiated search and rescue protocols.

“The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own,” Hegseth continued his statement defending the strike.

“These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” he declared.

Officials say dozens of suspected traffickers have been killed since Sept. 2, when the administration began targeting boats it says were carrying drugs.

Most of the strikes have taken place in the Caribbean Sea, with Monday’s strikes the second operation to take place in the eastern Pacific.

Hegseth had also announced on Friday that, under the president’s direction, the “Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua,” a designated terrorist organization headed by Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

That boat was also allegedly “trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea,” according to the secretary.

Monday’s strikes mark the deadliest day in the Pentagon’s nearly two-month long campaign targeting the South American drug cartels.

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It comes as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Maduro, deploying multiple warships, the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and roughly 10,000 troops to the region.

Also this week, the Pentagon has sent B-52 bombers on show-of-force missions to fly near Venezuela on three separate occasions.

Maduro is wanted on federal drug charges, with a $50 million reward offered for information leading to his capture.

The US considers the leftist authoritarian the illegitimate leader of Caracas after stealing the past two presidential elections, in 2018 and 2024.