Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out yet another lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). Yet again, the now-deceased terrorists were engaged in narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific. The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and was carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike. These strikes will continue, day after day. These are not simply drug runners—these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities. These DTOs are the “Al Qaeda” of our hemisphere and will not escape justice. We will find them and kill them, until the threat to the American people is extinguished.

NEW: U.S. forces strike and destroy a 9th narco-terrorist vessel at President Trump’s order. This marks the second illicit narcotics smuggling vessel strike in the Eastern Pacific. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirms: “All three terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.” “These strikes will continue, day after day. These are not simply drug runners—these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities.”

US Strikes Kill 3 Narco-Terrorists in Pacific Oct 23, 2025 – Per Trump's orders, DoW drone strike sinks DTO smuggling boat in intl waters. 3 dead, drugs seized. "Narco-terrorists = Al Qaeda of Americas. We hunt & kill until threat ends." 8th strike; 30+ eliminated. More to come.

It is the ninth known strike against an alleged drug boat in recent months.October 22, 2025, 11:50 PMThe U.S. military has carried out another airstrike on an alleged drug cartel vessel -- the second vessel to be hit in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in as many days.The latest strike was announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a social media post on Wednesday that also included video of the attack, which he said took place in international waters earlier that day.Hegseth alleged the vessel was transporting narcotics and said three men were killed in the strike."These strikes will continue, day after day," Hegseth wrote. "These are not simply drug runners -- these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities," he said in the post.Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on his X account that the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific on Oct. 21, 2022.@SecWar/XAccording to a government account, 37 people have been killed in nine known U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats since early September. Two people have survived and were returned by the U.S. Navy to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia. The survivor sent to Ecuador has been released, according to authorities thereHegseth called the drug cartels the "al Qaeda of our hemisphere" and said they "will not escape justice."The U.S. military carried out a previous strike in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, U.S. officials said.That strike occurred in the waters west of Central America, according to a U.S. official.Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on his X account that the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific on Oct. 21, 2022.@SecWar/XHegseth also released video of that strike on social media earlier Wednesday. Hegseth confirmed the strike killed two people and took place in the Eastern Pacific. He wrote that no U.S. forces were harmed in the strike.All the previous strikes had been carried out in the Caribbean Sea.Popular ReadsPresident Donald Trump said Wednesday the operation has reduced the number of boats trying to bring drugs into the U.S. and that smugglers will now try to bring in drugs by land. "And we will hit them very hard when they come in by land and they haven't experienced that yet," he said.Trump said if the operation grew to include targets on land, the White House would "probably" go to Congress and explain what it's doing, but he asserted "We don't have to do that."Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listens as President Donald Trump speaks before a lunch with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Oct. 17, 2025, in Washington.Alex Brandon/APThe use of lethal military force against alleged drug smugglers is unprecedented and has raised legal questions. Past administrations relied on law enforcement to interdict drug shipments. The Trump administration has defended the strikes as part of what it said is a "war" against cartels."They have faster boats. Some of these boats are seriously -- I mean, they're world-class speedboats -- but they're not faster than missiles," Trump said last week.Sponsored Content by Taboola

Bernd Debusmann Jr, Max Matza and Ione Wells,South America correspondentUS forces have struck a second vessel alleged to be carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean, amid an escalating US campaign against seaborne drug smuggling.Three people were killed and no US forces were harmed in the strike on Wednesday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said. It came hours after the US struck another boat in the Pacific, killing two people.Colombia's government has denounced the US for carrying out strikes on vessels close to its coast, saying the American action was "like applying the death penalty in a territory that is not yours".Wednesday's strikes were the first in Pacific waters, as most previous attacks were in the Caribbean."These strikes will continue, day after day. These are not simply drug runners - these are narco-terrorists bringing death and destruction to our cities," Hegseth posted on X.The post was accompanied by a video that appears to show a boat catching fire after being struck by a US bomb. Floating items are then seen in the water, before they appear to be targeted by a second air strike. The Colombian deputy foreign minister, Mauricio Jaramillo, said the strikes were "disproportionate and outside international law".He told the BBC's Newsday programme that those aboard had "no possibility to defend themselves".He added that there was "no process, no judicial order" and urged the US to instead co-operate with Colombia in the fight against drug trafficking.US President Donald Trump has said he had the legal authority to continue bombing boats in international waters, but said he may go to the US Congress if he decided to expand the targets to include those on land.He said his administration was "totally prepared" to expand the anti-drug operations onto land, which would mark a significant escalation. The expansion of these strikes into the Pacific Ocean is significant. It is a far greater drug trafficking sea route than the Caribbean so, in that sense, this strike appears more consistent with the US justification. However, it is still widely believed that these strikes are not only about drug trafficking but also about putting military pressure on the government of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.He is a longtime foe of Donald Trump who has long accused him of being the leader of a drug-trafficking organisation, something he denies.At least 37 people have been killed in the US strikes on alleged drug boats, including a recent strike on a semi-submersible vessel in the Caribbean.Two men survived that strike last week, and were repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador. Ecuador's government later released its national - identified as Andrés Fernando Tufiño - saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing. The other man, from Colombia, reportedly remains hospitalised. Both Colombia and neighbouring Ecuador have significant Pacific coastlines that experts say are used to funnel drugs north towards the US through Central America and Mexico. US estimates from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicate that the vast majority of cocaine bound for US cities passes through the Pacific. Drug seizures in the Caribbean - where the bulk of confirmed US strikes have so far taken place - account for a relatively small percentage of the total, although US officials have said it is rising.To date, US officials have offered few details on the identities of those killed in the strikes or what drug trafficking organisations they allegedly belong to.Around 10,000 US troops, as well as dozens of military aircraft and ships, have been deployed to the Caribbean as part of the operation.

For the second time in two days, the Trump administration launched deadly strikes on a vessel suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific, expanding its campaign beyond the Caribbean Sea, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said late Wednesday. The strikes this week were the eighth and ninth known boat attacks that U.S. Special Operations forces have conducted since the operation began in early September, and brought the officially acknowledged death toll to 37. Mr. Hegseth did not provide geographic details beyond saying that the attacks had taken place in the eastern Pacific, in international waters. All of the previous seven attacks took place in the Caribbean. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said the first strike in the eastern Pacific was off the coast of Colombia. That strike, late Tuesday, killed two people on the boat, Mr. Hegseth said in a post on X that included video footage of the attack. He said the vessel was “known by our intelligence” to be involved in drug smuggling and was carrying narcotics. The defense secretary announced another on Wednesday evening, which he said was carried out that day and killed three people. On Wednesday, speaking to reporters at the White House, President Trump bragged about the expanded action and suggested future strikes could go beyond targets at sea. “They had one today in the Pacific, and the way I look at it — every time I look — because it is violent and it is very — it’s amazing, the weaponry, you know they have these boats that go 45 to 50 miles an hour in the water, and when you look at the accuracy and the power — look, we have the greatest military in the world,” he said. Mr. Trump falsely asserted that each such destroyed boat saves 25,000 American lives. In reality, about 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses, but most of those deaths are caused by fentanyl, which comes from labs in Mexico. South America produces cocaine. Mr. Trump then suggested that he would soon order strikes against land targets, asserting that his administration’s strikes against boats had driven drug smuggling onto land routes. He added that his administration would “probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we are doing” before launching those strikes, but insisted that he did not need their permission to act. “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Mr. Trump said of those his administration accuses of drug smuggling. “They haven’t experienced that yet, but now we are totally prepared to do that.” Editors’ Picks Should You ‘Feed a Cold and Starve a Fever’? The Heroine of ‘His Dark Materials’ Is Back. Here’s What You Need to Know. Is Your Dog Peeing on Some of New York’s Best Folk Art? The operation began on Sept. 2, when the military, on President Trump’s orders, began attacking boats believed to be smuggling drugs as if those aboard were enemy combatants in a war rather than criminal suspects. Initially, the focus was on Venezuela. American officials are also weighing whether to intensify an effort to remove that nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who was indicted on drug trafficking charges in the United States in 2020 and whom the Trump team calls a cartel leader. But in the interim, the boat attacks have increasingly extended to Colombia, which is a far greater source of narcotics smuggled to the United States than Venezuela. President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has said several strikes killed Colombians, and again accused the United States of murder after the strikes announced on Wednesday. Mr. Trump has said he was cutting off foreign aid to Colombia amid the dispute. The administration has also said that intelligence backs its accusations of the passengers’ identities and what they were doing, but it has not offered evidence. A broad range of outside experts in laws governing the use of armed force have said the campaign is illegal because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even criminal suspects — who are not directly participating in hostilities. The White House has said the strikes are legal as a matter of self-defense and because Mr. Trump has “determined” that the country is in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels that his team has deemed terrorists. It has not publicly offered a legal theory that explains how to bridge the gap between trafficking an illicit product and responding with organized, armed attacks. Much of the world’s supply of cocaine is produced by three countries in South America — especially Colombia, which has coastlines on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The Trump administration has said all of its attacks were in international waters. It also described the people aboard each vessel as members of groups designated as terrorist organizations. The administration itself bestowed that designation upon numerous Latin American drug cartels and criminal gangs in the months leading up to the campaign. The legitimacy of that move is contested because drug cartels are motivated by the pursuit of illicit profits, while terrorists, by definition, are motivated by religious or ideological goals. In any case, the law allowing the executive branch to designate foreign groups as terrorists permits tactics like freezing assets, but it does not convey legal authority to kill their members. U.S. officials on Wednesday did not immediately identify any specific group as the target of the latest strikes. The majority of the cocaine smuggled into the United States moves through the Pacific, not the Caribbean, U.S. data shows. But the Trump administration has mostly focused its rhetoric on Venezuela, which only has a coast on the Caribbean. Mr. Trump described initial boat strikes as having killed Venezuelans and members of a Venezuelan gang. But the strikes are causing larger turmoil in the region. Mr. Petro of Colombia has said two strikes, one on Sept. 15 and one on Oct. 3, killed Colombians and accused the United States of murder. Relatives of a 26-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago said he and a neighbor had been killed in an Oct. 14 attack. Citizens of Colombia and yet another country, Ecuador, survived an Oct. 16 strike on a semi-submersible vessel, which Mr. Trump later said had killed two people. The U.S. Navy rescued two survivors and the administration repatriated them, with Mr. Trump saying both would be detained and prosecuted. However, prosecutors in Ecuador declined to charge that man, and instead released him on the grounds that there was no accusation he had committed a crime inside Ecuadorean territory. “Who are we striking?” Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat on the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, asked on Wednesday at a security conference. “If these are narco-terrorists, as Secretary Hegseth reports, then why did we just repatriate two of them back to their country of origin, if they’re such bad guys?” The other survivor has been hospitalized in Colombia with brain trauma and is breathing on a ventilator, Armando Benedetti, Colombia’s minister of the interior, said in a social media post on Saturday night. When he returns to consciousness, Mr. Benedetti said, he will be “processed by the justice system for drug trafficking.” In the seventh strike, on Oct. 17, the military killed three men the Trump administration accused of smuggling drugs for a Marxist insurgent group in Colombia known as the National Liberation Army, or E.L.N., which the State Department designated as terrorist in 1997.

Petro: "Focusing the strategy on launching missiles at boats, whether in the Caribbean or the Pacific, does not stop cocaine trafficking, and puts the U.S. outside of international law" https://sn-esp.site/JgRv

Petro: "Centrar la estrategia en arrojar misiles sobre lanchas, sea en el Caribe, sea en el Pacífico, no retiene el tráfico de cocaína, y pone a EE.UU. por fuera del derecho internacional" https://sn-esp.site/JgRv

#ATTENTION The Pentagon announced the destruction of a second drug-running boat in the Pacific. According to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, three crew members on board died. According to the Pentagon leader, “They are not just drug traffickers, but narco-terrorists. They are the Al Qaeda of our hemisphere and they will not escape justice.” At least 37 people have died in a series of US attacks against suspected drug-trafficking vessels in at least 11 operations in the Caribbean and now the Pacific. Via @itsDCastrillon http://Caracol.com.co

#ATENCIÓN El Pentágono anunció la destrucción de una segunda 'narcolancha' en el Pacífico. De acuerdo con el secretario de Guerra, Pete Hegseth, tres tripulantes que se encontraban a bordo fallecieron. Según el líder del Pentágono, “no son simples narcotraficantes, sino narcoterroristas. Son el Al Qaeda de nuestro hemisferio y no escaparán a la justicia.” Al menos 37 personas han muerto en una serie de ataques estadounidenses contra presuntas embarcaciones narcotraficantes en al menos 11 operaciones en el Caribe y ahora el Pacífico. Vía @itsDCastrillon http://Caracol.com.co

The US Secretary of War posted a video of a new attack on a speedboat carrying suspected drug traffickers, this time in the Eastern Pacific. He said they were fighting narco-terrorists, who are “the Al Qaeda of our hemisphere.”

El secretario de Guerra de Estados Unidos postea un video de un nuevo ataque contra una lancha de presuntos narcotraficantes, ahora en el Pacífico Oriental. Dice que están combatiendo a narcoterroristas, que son “el Al Qaeda de nuestro hemisferio”.

| BREAKING NEWS: US Secretary of Defense @SecWar announces that three male narco-terrorists were killed during an attack on a drug-trafficking vessel in international waters. “These attacks will continue, day after day. These are not just drug dealers, but narco-terrorists who sow death and destruction in our cities. These drug traffickers are the 'Al Qaeda' of our hemisphere and they will not escape justice. We will find them and eliminate them until the threat to the American people is extinguished.”

| ÚLTIMA HORA: El secretario de Guerra de EEUU @SecWar anuncia que 3 narcoterroristas varones murieron durante el ataque a una narco embarcación, que se llevó a cabo en aguas internacionales. “Estos ataques continuarán, día tras día. No son simples narcotraficantes, sino narcoterroristas que siembran muerte y destrucción en nuestras ciudades. Estos narcotraficantes son la "Al Qaeda" de nuestro hemisferio y no escaparán a la justicia. Los encontraremos y los eliminaremos hasta que la amenaza para el pueblo estadounidense se extinga”.

#Attention The United States confirms a second attack against a vessel transporting drugs in Pacific waters. Secretary of Defense Pete Headset stated that the incident left three people dead. “Our intelligence had knowledge that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling and was traveling along a known drug trafficking route and transporting narcotics,” he added.

#Atención Estados Unidos confirma un segundo ataque contra una embarcación que transportaba droga en aguas del Pacífico. El secretario de Guerra, Pete Headset, señaló que el hecho dejó tres personas muertas. “Nuestra inteligencia tenía conocimiento de que el buque estaba involucrado en el contrabando ilícito de narcóticos y transitaba por una ruta conocida de narcotráfico y transportaba narcóticos”, agregó.

#Attention The United States confirms a second attack against a vessel transporting drugs in Pacific waters. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated that the incident left three people dead. “Our intelligence had knowledge that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling and was traveling along a known drug trafficking route and transporting narcotics,” he added.

#Atención Estados Unidos confirma un segundo ataque contra una embarcación que transportaba droga en aguas del Pacífico. El secretario de Guerra, Pete Hegseth, señaló que el hecho dejó tres personas muertas. “Nuestra inteligencia tenía conocimiento de que el buque estaba involucrado en el contrabando ilícito de narcóticos y transitaba por una ruta conocida de narcotráfico y transportaba narcóticos”, agregó.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that another drug-trafficking boat was destroyed in the Pacific and that they will continue to strike at what he calls the Al-Qaeda of our hemisphere. Three drug traffickers were killed.

El Secretario de Guerra Pete Hegseth confirma que destruyeron otra narco lancha en el Pacífico y que seguirán dándole golpes a los que denomina los Al-Qaeda de nuestro hemisferio. Tres narcoterroristas fueron dados de baja.

A second drug boat was destroyed in the Pacific. Three terrorists were killed. Don't tell Petro he's going to have a crisis in 3, 2, 1. The war on drugs is no longer just about the courts. Now it's direct and at sea.

Una segunda narco lancha fue destruida en el Pacífico. Tres terroristas fueron dados de baja. No le cuenten a Petro que le va a dar un yeyo en 3, 2, 1 . La guerra contra las drogas no es más judicial. Ahora es directa y en el mar.

GÜIRIA, Venezuela (AP) — One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet. And a fourth was a down-on-his-luck bus driver. The men had little in common beyond their Venezuelan seaside hometowns and the fact all four were among the more than 60 people killed since early September when the U.S. military began attacking boats that the Trump administration alleges were smuggling drugs. President Donald Trump and top U.S. officials have alleged the craft were being operated by narco-terrorists and cartel members bound with deadly drugs for American communities. One mother describes the “confusion and anguish” of losing her son, who is believed to have been killed in one of the boats targeted by the U.S. military. (AP video Juan Arraez) The Associated Press learned the identities of four of the men – and pieced together details about at least five others – who were slain, providing the first detailed account of those who died in the strikes. In dozens of interviews in villages on Venezuela’s breathtaking northeastern coast, from which some of the boats departed, residents and relatives said the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang. Most of the nine men were crewing such craft for the first or second time, making at least $500 per trip, residents and relatives said. They were laborers, a fisherman, a motorcycle taxi driver. Two were low-level career criminals. One was a well-known local crime boss who contracted out his smuggling services to traffickers. The men lived on the Paria Peninsula, in mostly unpainted cinderblock homes that can go weeks without water service and regularly lose power for several hours a day. They awoke to panoramic views of a national park’s tropical forests, the Gulf of Paria’s shallows and the Caribbean’s sparkling sapphire waters. When the time came for their drug runs, they boarded open-hulled fishing skiffs that relied on powerful outboard motors to haul their drugs to nearby Trinidad and other islands. The residents and relatives interviewed by the AP requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals from drug smugglers, the Venezuelan government or the Trump administration. They said they were incensed that the men were killed without due process. In the past, their boats would have been interdicted by the U.S. authorities and the crewmen charged with federal crimes, affording them a day in court. The U.S. government “should have stopped them,” a man’s relative said.It has been difficult for relatives to learn much about their dead loved ones because criminal gangs and the Venezuelan government have long repressed the flow of information in the region. Venezuelan officials have blasted the U.S. government over the strikes, and the nation’s ambassador to the U.N. called the attacks “extrajudicial executions.” They have also steadfastly denied that drug traffickers operate in the country and have yet to acknowledge that any of its citizens have been killed in boat strikes. Spokespeople for Venezuela’s government did not respond to a request for comment.The Trump administration has justified the strikes by declaring drug cartels to be “ unlawful combatants ” and said the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with them. Trump has said each sunken boat has saved 25,000 American lives, presumably from overdoses. The boats, however, appear to have been transporting cocaine, not the far more deadly synthetic opioids that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year. Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement to the AP that the Defense Department has “consistently said that our intelligence did indeed confirm that the individuals involved in these drug operations were narco-terrorists, and we stand by that assessment.”So far, the U.S. military has blown up 17 vessels, killing more than 60 people. Nine of the craft were targeted in the Caribbean, and at least three of those had departed from Venezuela, according to the Trump administration. The military is striking the boats at the same time the administration is applying increasing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Justice Department doubled a reward for his arrest to $50 million, and the U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela and has flown pairs of supersonic, heavy bombers along the country’s coast. Relatives and acquaintances said they have confirmed the deaths through word-of-mouth and inexplicit social media posts that sought to convey information about the dead men without drawing the attention of Venezuelan authorities. They have also made what they described as reasonable deductions: The men have not returned phone calls or texts in weeks, or reached out to say they were OK; Venezuelan authorities, residents said, have also searched some of the homes of the dead men. “I want an answer, but who can I ask?” said a relative of one of the men. “I can’t say anything.”The fisherman (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) A native of Güiria, a village on the southeast side of the peninsula, Robert Sánchez dropped out of school as a teenager and like many others in the region became a fisherman like his father, according to friends and relatives. The 42-year-old was considered among the peninsula’s best pilots, they said, having spent the better part of three decades mastering the area’s currents and winds, so much so he could navigate the waters at night without instruments. As part of hired crews, the father of four spent his days fishing for snapper, kingfish and dogfish. The fisherman wanted to save enough money to buy a 75-horsepower boat engine so he could operate his own boat and not work for others. It was a dream Sánchez knew he was likely to never realize, relatives said: Most of his income — about $100 a month — went to feed his children.He was not alone in that situation. The peninsula is part of Sucre state, one of Venezuela’s poorest. Sucre was once home to several fish processing plants, an auto assembly plant and a large public university, all of which offered well-paying jobs. Most have shuttered. The peninsula is dotted by the unfulfilled promises of 26 years of a self-described socialist government, including an abandoned shipyard and the rusted infrastructure meant for a natural gas complex. With its proximity to the Caribbean Sea, the area is a popular transit hub for cocaine making its way from Colombia to Trinidad and other Caribbean islands before heading to Europe. Colombian cocaine destined for the U.S. is generally smuggled out of Colombia through the Pacific coast. The larger economic pressures — and Sánchez’s goal of owning a boat engine — are what pushed the fisherman to accept an offer to help traffickers navigate the tricky waters he knew so well, friends and relatives said. Sánchez had just finished offloading a day’s catch last month when he told his mother he would be taking a short trip and would see her in a couple of days. They had no idea where he was going. After seeing clips on social media that mentioned his death, relatives broke the news to his mother, but not until after ensuring she had taken her blood pressure medication. Sánchez’s youngest son, a third grader, could not accept for days that his father was gone. He kept asking adults if his father could have survived the explosion, noting he might still be at sea.No, the adults told the boy. His father was gone. One of the first to die (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) Luis “Che” Martínez was killed in the first strike. A burly 60-year-old, Martínez was a longtime local crime boss, and he made most of his living smuggling drugs and people across borders, according to several people who knew him. He had been jailed by Venezuelan authorities on human-trafficking charges after a boat he had operated capsized in December 2020, killing about two dozen people, law enforcement officials said at the time. Among those who died in the accident were two of his sons and a granddaughter, relatives told the AP. The AP was not able to determine the disposition of his criminal case, but Martínez was eventually released from custody and returned to smuggling people and drugs, according to acquaintances. Though they detested what he did for a living — and the control Martínez and similar criminals exerted over their villages — several residents said they appreciated how Martínez contributed annually to the town’s festival of the Virgin of the Valley, the patroness of fishermen, and he spent lavishly in local shops and restaurants. He also bet heavily on cockfights, a popular pastime, a bird breeder said. Martínez was killed, a relative and several acquaintances said, in the first known U.S. strike, which took place Sept. 2. Trump quickly took to social media to claim the vessel had departed from Venezuela and had been carrying drugs. The 11-man crew, the president said, had been members of the Tren de Aragua gang. He said all of the men were killed and also posted a short video clip of a small vessel appearing to explode in flames.Martínez’s relatives said they did not believe the underworld figure was a member of that gang. They said they have been provided no information from the Venezuelan government about his fate. They figured it out when they came across a photo of a body that had washed ashore in Trinidad. The photo had been shared on social media and messaging apps and depicted a badly mutilated body. The people familiar with Martínez said they knew instantly the stout corpse was Martínez because, on his left wrist, was strapped one of his most treasured belongings: an ostentatious watch. The former cadet and bus driver (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) Dushak Milovcic, 24, was drawn to crime by the adrenaline rush and money, so much that he dropped out of the country’s National Guard Academy, according to those who knew him. He started as a lookout for smugglers, they said. Though he had no experience at sea, he eventually won a promotion to the more lucrative and coveted jobs on drug-running boats.It’s not clear how many trips he had undertaken before he was killed last month. Juan Carlos “El Guaramero” Fuentes had operated a transit bus for several years but was facing dire financial circumstances when it had broken down. The government had been unable — or unwilling — to fix it. That meant he was losing money because bus drivers in Venezuela typically pocket a portion of the fares, making it nearly impossible for him to feed and clothe his family. (AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin) Villagers said they were not surprised that Fuentes, who had no nautical experience, turned to smuggling to make ends meet. The higher-level traffickers who typically crewed such boats had been staying ashore to avoid being targeted by U.S. missiles. In their place, villagers said, they had been increasingly hiring novices like Fuentes. Fuentes told friends he had been nervous about his first smuggling run, knowing it would be filled with risks from weather, rival gangs, even the U.S. military. The September trip had gone surprisingly smoothly, he told friends, and he readily agreed to join another crew. Fuentes was killed in a missile strike last month, friends said, the precise one unknown. Dotted Line with Center Square —-Konstantin Toropin contributed from Washington.—This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.—-Contact the AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/