Video: U.S. Destroys Boat off Venezuela Accused of Narcotrafficking

The U.S. has released another video of the destruction of a small boat, which it says was off the coast of Venezuela. Later media reports are saying six men were killed aboard the boat, which Donald Trump accused in a social media posting of being associated with the drug cartels.

The video appears to show a stationary boat before the attack from the air. It explodes, and most of the video shows the boat burning.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was tracking narcotics, was associated with illicit naracoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO Route,” Trump wrote on his social media posting. It is the fifth attack, according to Fox News, while the Pentagon and Trump have released four videos. The previous release was on October 3.

https://t.co/AYyPZuUsm9pic.twitter.com/1gY3vBnvqa

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) October 14, 2025

Questions have arisen in Congress over the authority to proceed with these attacks, and it has been noted that the administration has not publicly or privately provided proof of its assertions that these were known drug trafficking. The first attack in September raised questions due to the number of people aboard the boat and reports that it might have been a fishing excursion.

Trump and the White House counter by saying the president, in February, designated some of the known drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” In today’s announcement of the strike, Trump writes that the strike was on his “Standing Authority as Commander-in-Chief.” He writes that the boat was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” and was “conducting narcotrafficking.”

The strike comes days after Pete Hegseth announced the formation of a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the Southern Command area. It is under the Marine Expeditionary Force with a mission to synchronize and augment counter-narcotics efforts across the Western Hemisphere.

Trump speaking to reporters during a White House event today, October 14, accused Venezuela of being “a big purveyor of drugs.” He has said the strikes will continue until the cartels are stopped. Hegseth wrote on social media, “If you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.”

Venezuela is accusing the United States of an “ulterior motive,” and said the U.S. has spent 26 years seeking to advance “regime change.” Venezuela has written to the United Nations’ Security Council requesting an emergency meeting.