WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military on Monday sank "a low-profile vessel" suspected of transporting drugs in international waters in the eastern Pacific, killing a male aboard, the U.S. Southern Command said.

At the direction of the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted "a lethal kinetic strike" on the vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters, the command said in a post on social platform X.

Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations, the post said, adding that one male narco-terrorist was killed in the attack.

As of Monday, the Pentagon has sunk more than 29 alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September, killing at least 105 people aboard.

For almost four months, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the Caribbean, much of it off Venezuela's coast, purportedly to combat drug trafficking -- a claim Venezuela has denounced as a thinly veiled attempt to bring about regime change in Caracas. ■