On October 21, 2025, the United States military carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel allegedly affiliated with “a Designated Terrorist Organization,” reportedly killing two people described as “narco-terrorists” in international waters in the Eastern Pacific. According to CBS News and the New York Times, a defense official confirmed to them that the strike occurred in international waters off the coast of Colombia.

On October 22nd, a day after the strike, @SecWar Pete Hegseth published on Twitter/X a statement announcing the strike on a vessel reportedly involved in “illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics”. The statement did not specify whether those killed were men or women. In the video included in the post, a boat with cargo can be seen moving through the water until an explosion occurs and then the boat can be seen engulfed in flames in both greyscale and color.

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.

There were no additional details found among local sources about the victims.

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 two deaths.