During the morning of October 3rd, 2025, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, announced that a U.S. strike destroyed a drug-trafficking boat in international waters “just” off the coast of Venezuela, reportedly killing four men on board.

In a post published on his X account (@SecWar) at 12:33 p.m. local time, Hegseth stated that earlier in the morning, “on President Trump’s orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” adding that “four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike, and no U.S. forces were harmed.” The statement includes the assertion that “Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route” but no further evidence was provided. The accompanying video shows a small speedboat at sea moving through the water before it is struck by an explosion and quickly engulfed in flames.

The White House X account (@WhiteHouse) and @TrumpTruthOnX also posted the same morning that President Trump had ordered the attack, stating the boat was “loaded with enough drugs to kill 25,000 to 50,000 people.” Several major outlets and regional media—among them El País México, Noticias Caracol, El Pitazo TV, and Efecto Cocuyo—also mention the incident and re-shared the video, each repeating the information provided by the U.S. government. None provided independent verification of the casualties or any additional information.

On October 8th, in response to a post by U.S. Senator Adam Schiff on X, Colombian president @petrogustavo stated that “Evidence shows that the last boat bombed was Colombian, with Colombian citizens inside. I hope their families come forward and file complaints.” It is unclear whether this is in reference to the attack on October 3rd documented here or the possible strike disclosed by Trump on October 4th (separately assessed in USMAR251004a). The White House responded to Petro’s comments by calling them a “baseless and reprehensible statement” and demanding that he publicly retract them. The Colombian president responded on X that “The White House should give us information about the people who have died from US missiles, so we know if my information is unfounded.”

An AP investigation published on November 7th mentioned three men who had reportedly disappeared “last month” at sea and were possibly killed by US military strikes. However, as the reporting did not identify a specific date, their details have been included in all assessments for October but have not been listed among the victims list until further information can tie them to a specific strike. AP reported that 42-year-old Robert Sanchez, a father, fisherman and native of Guiria had been helping traffickers navigate the waterways due to economic pressures when he disappeared and was reported as dead by relatives on social media. 24-year-old Dushak Milovcic, a former cadet in the National Guard Academy had dropped out to make more money from running drugs on boats for smugglers and was killed. Juan Carlos “El Guaramero” Fuentes, a former transit bus operator whose bus had broken down, turned to smuggling to feed his family and had only been on his second smuggling run when he was killed.

Methodological note about classification of those killed in this incident

In documenting this incident, Airwars is following the guidance outlined by independent International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law experts, whereby those on the vessels are understood to be civilians, given that the legal framework in which the strikes are being conducted remains in question.

Airwars has therefore included a civilian casualty count of four deaths.