A US military campaign against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea, overseen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is facing renewed scrutiny over both its effectiveness and the conduct of the operation itself, according to Time and Esquire.

The campaign began with a first strike in early September. The day after, Hegseth appeared on Fox News to describe the attack in detail, saying the military had clear knowledge of who was aboard the targeted boat.

“We knew exactly who was in that boat, we knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented.” — Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense, speaking to Fox News

A shifting account and a ‘double-tap’ allegation

Time reports that Hegseth’s public description of that first strike has changed in the months since it took place, without detailing what the discrepancies involve. Separately, The Washington Post published an investigation alleging that a second strike, sometimes called a “double-tap” strike, hit survivors of the initial attack.

CNN has reported that Hegseth gave orders before the operation related to ensuring the strike would be lethal. The reporting has intensified scrutiny of the Pentagon’s conduct in a campaign that has involved repeated, lethal strikes on vessels suspected of carrying narcotics.

Questions over the campaign’s results

Writing in Esquire, columnist Charles P. Pierce argued that results from the campaign, reported months after it began, showed the strikes had not meaningfully curbed drug trafficking despite the mounting death toll.

“As if we needed more confirmation that Pete Hegseth and our defense department are both psychotic and ineffectual.” — Charles P. Pierce, columnist, Esquire

The Trump administration has not publicly released detailed trafficking data to support or refute claims about the campaign’s impact, and the brief underlying this account notes that some figures cited in earlier reporting could not be independently verified. The administration has faced increased scrutiny following the Washington Post’s investigation, though it has not issued a detailed public response addressed in the available reporting.

This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by Lasse Pedersen before publication. How we use AI

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