Hegseth indicates that attacks on suspected drug shipments have intimidated traffickers

(AFP) The campaign to destroy suspected drug trafficking vessels has been so successful that targets are already in short supply, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, speaking before military leaders from 18 American countries gathered in Doral, Fla., asked to "move to attack against narcoterrorists."

The U.S. began targeting boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific in early September and since then has killed 150 suspected drug traffickers.

"Last month, we went a few weeks without targeting a single boat. Why? Well, because we couldn't find a whole lot of boats to sink," Hegseth said during an anti-drug trafficking meeting held with guests from 18 countries in the Americas.

"And that's the whole point, is to establish deterrence from narco-terrorists who have been able to traffic almost unfettered," he added.

The secretary of war used the conference as an opportunity to encourage the countries present to cooperate with the United States in the fight against the cartels.

"In your countries, many leaders accepted the status quo—to coexist with narco-terrorism or for a a law-enforcement-alone approach that failed to deter and dismantle threats," he said from the U.S. Southern Command headquarters.

"The result of this collective neglect was fatal. More than one million Americans were killed by fentanyl, cocaine, and other drugs—numbers greater than any casualties we’ve sustained in war," he added.

Hegseth claimed that President Donald Trump had succeeded in "stopping the invasion of cartels and other criminal actors" on the southern border.

"You too can and must go on the offensive against narco-terrorists," he declared.

Washington has deployed a large naval force in the Caribbean, where it has attacked drug trafficking boats, seized oil tankers and captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, transferred to New York to stand trial for drug trafficking.