WATCH: Hegseth Releases Epic Footage Of New Strike On Narcoterrorist Boat In Caribbean Sea

The War Department on Friday released footage of another precision strike on a drug-trafficking boat off the coast of Venezuela. President Donald Trump has authorized a number of airstrikes on drug-trafficking speedboats manned by Tren de Aragua gang members — which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization due to documented links with the Venezuelan government — and has suggested that the operations will only increase in intensity.

“Earlier this morning, on President Trump’s orders, I directed a lethal, kinetic strike on a narco-trafficking vessel affiliated with Designated Terrorist Organizations in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Hegseth announced in a social media post Friday.

According to the department, the strike killed four narco-terrorists, and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. “The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics – headed to America to poison our people,” Hegseth added. “Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route. These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”

The secretary’s post was accompanied by overhead drone footage of which shows a semi-submersible boat, commonly known as “narco submarines,” which ride low in the water, often with only a small portion of the vessel visible above the surface, making it difficult to detect. The vessel was then struck with a single strike fired from an overhead drone, resulting in a massive fireball.

Friday’s strike is at least the fifth targeting drug-trafficking boats linked with the Venezuelan government’s smuggling operations since September 2, bringing the total number of people killed in the strikes to 24. The new strategy marks a massive shift in U.S. foreign policy towards foreign drug cartels, which are now being designated and treated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump Administration.

In a brief memo sent to Congress earlier this week, the White House laid out its reasoning for declaring a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels.

“The President directed these actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct foreign relations,” the memo states.