Since September, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have ordered controversial military strikes against shipping in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
The Trump administration has alleged, with little evidence, that the ships were smuggling drugs from Venezuela and Colombia. So far, the campaign has killed more than 80 suspected drug traffickers, according to officials.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attend a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, Oct. 9, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Venezuelan and Colombian leaders have refuted the administration’s arguments for the attacks and criticized Trump for his military action.
On Capitol Hill, some leaders from both parties have questioned the legality of the strikes and whether the president has the constitutional power to authorize them.
Below is the schedule of the operation:
September 2, 2025
Trump posts video on his social media platform of what he says is an attack on a ship carrying drugs to the United States. The president says that all 11 “Aragua Train narcoterrorists” on board were killed and that they were operating under the control of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro denies the accusations.
September 15, 2025:
Trump announces a second attack that reportedly kills three people in the Caribbean.
The president says in a social media post that there were “3 male terrorists killed in action.”
President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attend a roundtable discussion with the National Security Task Force in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, October 23, 2025.
Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock
When asked by reporters about the attack, Trump said the incident occurred in international waters and insisted “we have evidence” the ship was carrying drugs because of the cargo in the ocean.
“Big bags of cocaine and fentanyl everywhere,” he says.
September 19, 2025:
Three people die in a third attack in the Caribbean.
Trump alleges they were working for an unspecified “designated terrorist organization.”
The president provides few details about the operation, but says intelligence indicated the ship was smuggling drugs and was “transiting a known drug trafficking passage en route to poisoning Americans.”
October 3, 2025:
The president reveals that a fourth attack kills four people who he claims were “male narcoterrorists.”
Trump alleges that the ship was “loaded with enough drugs to kill between 25 and 50 thousand people.”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro publishes in X that the people on the boat were actually from Colombia.
An image from a video posted by President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account claims to show a lethal kinetic attack on a ship off the coast of Venezuela on October 14, 2025.
@realDonaldTrump/Social Truth
October 14, 2025:
The president takes advantage of his speech celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Navy to reveal a fifth Attack that allegedly kills six men in the Caribbean.
Trump alleges that intelligence showed the ship was “trafficking narcotics” and “associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks.”
October 16, 2025:
An attack that hit a ship in the Caribbean had lingering effects after it was revealed there were survivors.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Oct. 16, 2025, in Washington.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
A video released by the Department of Defense shows a semi-submersible that Trump said was “loaded” with fentanyl. Two of the four people on the boat die.
The two survivors, whom Trump identifies as terrorists, were freed. Colombia and Ecuador in a matter of hours, a measure that prevents them from protesting their detention in court.
U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Alvin Holsey, deputy military commander of U.S. Southern Command, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee at a confirmation hearing in Washington, Sept. 12, 2024.
Technology. Sergeant. Sarah Mcclanahan/Air National Guard
The same day, Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of Southern Command that oversees military operations in the region, announces that he will step down after less than a year on the job.
October 17, 2025:
Hegseth announces a seventh attack in the Caribbean and alleges that three men linked to Colombian terrorist groups were killed in international waters.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on his
@SegundaGuerra/X
October 21, 2025
The operation targets their first ship in the Pacific Ocean and kills two people.
Hegseth says the eighth attack occurred in waters west of Central America.
October 22, 2025
The administration continues its attacks in the Pacific with a ninth attack on a ship.
Hegseth says the ship was carrying narcotics and three men died.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted on his X account that the War Department conducted a lethal kinetic attack overnight on a ship in the Caribbean Sea on October 24, 2025.
@SegundaGuerra/X
October 24, 2025
Six people die when a ship is hit off the coast of Venezuela in the tenth attack of the operation.
Hegseth says the target was an alleged drug boat operated by the Tren de Aragua.
The United States has carried out attacks on four more suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on October 28, 2025, killing 14 people.
@SegundaGuerra/X
October 27, 2025
In the largest attack to date, 14 people are killed in the Eastern Pacific, according to the Secretary of Defense.
Hegseth says the United States attacked four suspected drug trafficking ships in three coordinated attacks.
The United States has carried out attacks on four more suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on October 28, 2025, killing 14 people.
@SegundaGuerra/X
According to Hegseth, one survivor is reported. The Mexican Navy and the United States Coast Guard say they are searching for the survivor.
October 29, 2025
According to Hegseth, the United States attacks another ship in the eastern Pacific, killing four people in the 15th attack.
This screenshot from a video posted on social media shows a ship after being hit by a kinetic strike in the Eastern Pacific.
@secwar
“Our intelligence knew that this ship, like all others, was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting a known drug trafficking route and was transporting narcotics,” Hegseth says without giving details.
November 1, 2025
Hegseth announces that three people die in an attack on an alleged drug ship in the Caribbean.
“These narcoterrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home, and they won’t succeed,” Hegseth says in a post on
November 4, 2025
In the 16th attack, two people are killed when a suspected drug trafficking ship is attacked in the eastern Pacific, Hegseth announces in X.
This screenshot from a video posted by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to his X account on November 4, 2025, shows what Hegseth says is a deadly attack on a ship carrying narcotics in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The X account of the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth
“We will find and dismantle EVERY vessel intended to smuggle drugs into the United States to poison our citizens. Protecting the homeland is our TOP priority. NO terrorist cartel stands a chance against the US military,” says Hegseth.
November 6, 2025
Hegseth announces Three people die in the seventeenth attack on an alleged drug trafficking ship, this one in the Caribbean.
This screenshot from a video posted by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to his X account on November 6, 2025, shows what Hegseth says is a deadly attack on a ship carrying narcotics in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The X account of the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth
“To all the narcoterrorists who threaten our homeland: if you want to stay alive, stop trafficking drugs. If you continue trafficking deadly drugs, we will kill you,” Hegseth says in a post on X.
November 9, 2025
Hegseth the next day announces Two more attacks were carried out on suspected drug trafficking vessels (the 18th and the 19th) in the eastern Pacific, killing three people on each vessel.
This screenshot from a video posted by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to his
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth/AFP via Getty Images
“Under President Trump, we are protecting the homeland and killing these terrorist cartels who wish to harm our country and its people,” Hegseth says in a post on X.
November 13, 2025
The US military carried out an attack on a suspected drug cartel ship in the Caribbean earlier in the week, killing all four people on board, a US official told ABC News.
November 15, 2025
The US Southern Command has released an X-ray video of the latest US military airstrike against a suspected drug smuggling ship. The attack occurred Saturday in the eastern Pacific and killed three people on board, according to authorities.
To date there have been 21 airstrikes against such vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, and 83 people have been killed in the attacks.
