US President Donald Trump announced Monday that the US military carried out another targeted strike on a Venezuelan boat allegedly transporting drugs, killing three men aboard.

The action comes two weeks after an initial strike on a Venezuelan speedboat allegedly engaged in drug-trafficking activity. Trump defended the strikes as a step necessary to curb narcotics transportation into the US. He wrote in an online post:

These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests. .. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this Strike …The illicit activities by these cartels have wrought DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES ON AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES, killing millions of American Citizens.

US leaders specifically alleged that the first strike targeted individuals tied to Tren de Aragua—an international drug syndicate labeled a terrorist organization by the State Department. Officials have not indicated whether the second strike targeted cartel activity. Congressional leaders have raised alarm over the lack of evidence tying the organization to the targeted boats and the broad exercise of executive power.

The administration has mobilized much of its domestic, and now international, enforcement power in opposition to Tren de Aragua. In March, the administration justified invoking the Alien Enemies Act (ACA) in part to combat cartel members who have allegedly “infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.” A federal court has since rebuked the administration’s use of the ACA to deport Venezuelan nationals.

The administration has also claimed Tren de Aragua coordinates with the Cártel de los Soles, allegedly led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with other global leaders, has condemned Maduro’s rise to power as illegitimate and does not recognize his presidency. Currently, the State Department offers a $50 million reward for information that would lead to Maduro’s arrest. 

Maduro reportedly responded to the US strikes by calling them a “heinous crime” and “a military attack on civilians who were not at war and were not militarily threatening any country.” Maduro also reportedly claimed that the Trump administration’s anti-drug rhetoric is a pretense for instigating a Venezuelan “regime change for oil.”

The boat strikes come during fast-moving US immigration actions and multiple court challenges. In August, federal judges shot down the administration’s removal of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants and halted criminal-contempt prosecutions of federal officials involved in the removal of suspected Tren de Aragua members.