Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has issued a chest-beating warning to so-called “narco terrorists” after the U.S. military killed 14 people in yet another series of strikes on alleged drug boats.
Amid growing skepticism over the legality of the lethal strikes, the former Fox News host appeared to channel Irish actor Liam Neeson while justifying the latest bombing on four suspected drug vessels in the Eastern Pacific.
“These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” Hegseth said.
The threat was reminiscent of the famous line from the action blockbuster Taken, in which Neeson plays a former CIA agent searching for his kidnapped daughter.
“If you let my daughter go, that’ll be the end of it… But if you don’t I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you,” he says in the film.
But for all the machismo, the U.S. has not provided any evidence to substantiate its allegations of drug trafficking, nor have any the identities of any victims been provided.
Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific.The four vessels were known by our intelligence… pic.twitter.com/UhoFlZ3jPG
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 28, 2025
The latest strikes were announced by Hegseth on social media on Tuesday, bringing the total number of people killed by the administration to 57.
The strikes are the latest to take place since September 2, when the first operation killed 11 people in the Caribbean Sea. Trump claimed they were from the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua.
This was followed by at least 13 other air strikes, the most recent being on Friday, hours after Trump issued a chilling threat to keep killing enemies without legal authority.
“I don’t think we will necessarily ask for a Declaration of War,” he said, referencing the Act that Presidents must request from Congress, which has the authority under the Constitution to declare war.
“I think we will just kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead.”
The administration’s actions have sparked growing concerns, with legal experts, global leaders and even some Republicans questioning the legality of bombing suspected civilian cartel members without any attempt to intercept or capture them first.
“We can’t just kill indiscriminately because we are not at war. It’s summary execution!” said Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, one of the few Republicans willing to speak out against Trump.
On Tuesday, Democrat Senator Jamie Raskin added: “The president is not himself the police, the judge, the jury and the executioner. It’s a terrifying logic they’re advancing to the world… Only Congress can declare war.”
The strikes have also expanded into a broader pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom the Trump Administration considers illegitimate.
Trump has denied he is seeking regime change in Venezuela, but has ramped up threats against the country’s president and ordered a massive naval buildup off Venezuela’s coast.
But in what appears to be a growing pattern in Hegseth’s Pentagon, Reuters reports that military officials involved in expanding operations in Latin America have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements to keep the details secret.
“Good luck going into a federal court and arguing that you need to enforce a contract to shield mass murder,” said former Republican and past trial lawyer John Jackson. “Pig won’t fly.”
Some global leaders, such as Colombian President Gustav Petro, have called for a criminal investigation by the United Nations, likening Trump’s actions to murder.
Tensions escalated this month when Petro claimed that one man who was killed in a boat strike that took place in mid-September was “lifelong fisherman” Alejandro Carranza, whose boat had experienced damage and was adrift.
Trump responded online by declaring Petro, who rose to prominence as a Colombian Senator by exposing links between right-wing paramilitary groups involved in drug trafficking and corrupt politicians, was an “illegal drug leader.”
The post Chest-Beater Hegseth’s Bonkers ‘Taken’ Threat to Boat Narcos appeared first on The Daily Beast.
