President Donald Trump has announced a new military strike against a suspected drug trafficking boat in international waters near Venezuela, resulting in the deaths of six people whom the administration labeled as “narcoterrorists.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, “Under my Standing Authorities as Commander-in-Chief, this morning, the Secretary of War ordered a lethal strike on a vessel linked to a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO) involved in drug trafficking in the USSOUTHCOM area, just off the Coast of Venezuela.”

The President also shared a video of the strike, showing a stationary boat being hit by what seems to be a missile.

This operation comes after at least four similar strikes against suspected drug boats since early September, reflecting a change in the Trump administration's strategy toward drug interdiction. Earlier this month, the administration officially stated that the United States is involved in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, according to documentation provided to Congress to justify these strikes.

On October 3, a previous strike killed four people on another suspected drug trafficking boat. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth defended the operation, saying, “Our intelligence confirmed without a doubt that this vessel was involved in drug trafficking, the people on board were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known drug trafficking route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people stop!”

However, legal experts have raised concerns about the administration's approach, especially the decision to use military force instead of traditional law enforcement agencies like the Coast Guard. They also question why non-lethal options aren't considered before resorting to deadly force.

Some former military lawyers argue that the legal justifications provided by the Trump administration for killing suspected drug traffickers at sea do not meet the requirements of the law of war, which mandates that certain criteria must be fulfilled before taking lethal action, such as first using non-lethal methods like warning shots.

President Trump has defended this strategy, insisting that each intercepted vessel holds enough drugs to kill tens of thousands of people.