WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)—US forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Washington’s anti-narcotics campaign to at least 57.

The United States began carrying out the strikes — which experts say are illegal — in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific.

In three strikes carried out Monday in international waters, 14 “narco-terrorists” were killed and one survived, Hegseth said in a post on X.

This was the deadliest single-day toll so far in the US campaign.

“The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” he said.

The Pentagon chief’s post included video of the strikes, the first of which targeted two stationary boats that appeared to be moored together, and the other two on vessels that were speeding across open water.

Hegseth said that US Southern Command (Southcom) immediately started searching for the sole survivor of the strikes, and that Mexican authorities “accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue.”

He did not specify what happened to the survivor or if the person was found, and SOUTHCOM referred a question on the survivor to Mexico.

– Galapagos base? –

“We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” Hegseth said of drug traffickers.

But Washington has yet to provide evidence that its targets were smuggling drugs, and experts say the strikes are illegal even if they target known traffickers.

The United States has carried out a major buildup of military forces in Latin America that it says is aimed at countering drug trafficking. It has deployed seven US Navy warships as well as F-35 stealth warplanes, and ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group to the region, which will bring with it a massive increase in firepower.

The unusually large US military presence in the Caribbean is coming face to face with a massive hurricane that is churning across the region, requiring some assets to be moved to safety.

Washington has also carried out multiple shows of force with B-52 and B-1B bombers flying near Venezuela’s coast, the most recent of which took place on Monday.

Regional tensions have flared as a result of the strikes and the military buildup, with Venezuela saying the United States is plotting to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, who has accused Washington of “fabricating a war.”

Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa, a staunch US ally, meanwhile said Tuesday that his country could host a foreign military base in the Galapagos Islands that could be used to combat drug and fuel trafficking, as well as illegal fishing.

Noboa did not specify which country could establish the base in Ecuador, a major hub for cocaine trafficking, but has talked of “various countries,” including the United States.