By Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood, CNN

(CNN) — The deadly US military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Tuesday marked a significant and escalatory shift in the Trump administration’s fight against drug trafficking, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaled there would be more destruction moving forward.

Rubio on Wednesday argued that the traditional policy of intercepting drug-carrying vessels had not worked. Instead, the US is “going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations.”

“The United States has long, for many, many years, established intelligence that allow us to interdict and stop drug boats. We did that. And it doesn’t work,” Rubio said at a press conference in Mexico City.

“What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them,” he said, arguing that interdiction doesn’t work because drug cartels plan to lose 2% of their cargo.

The top US diplomat said the US had intelligence that the vessel coming from Venezuela, with alleged ties to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, “was headed towards, eventually, the United States.”

“Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now,” Rubio said.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration designated several Latin American cartels and criminal organizations, including Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations.

Both Rubio and Vice President JD Vance have referenced terrorist designations as rationale when asked about the legal authority for the deadly strikes. US President Donald Trump, Rubio noted, has the right “to eliminate imminent threats to the United States.”

Still, questions remain about the specifics of the operation, which came as the US in recent weeks has also amassed a significant number of military assets around the Caribbean and South America. Rubio did not provide any details on what kind of drugs were on board, or exactly how the boat was destroyed. On Tuesday he referred questions on the operational details to the Pentagon, but the department has not briefed reporters on the strike.

Tuesday’s strike, which killed 11 people, was unprecedented, said retired US Amb. Luis Moreno, who spent much of his career at the State Department working on counter-narcotic efforts.

“If it really was a major drug trafficking movement, why not do as we’ve always done? Get a beat on it, trace it to where they’re going to drop the drugs off, to a mothership or to someone else, and then seize the whole thing,” he told CNN.

“Just without warning, just blowing it up to smithereens in international waters, that’s not the way you’re supposed to do things,” Moreno said, arguing the strike “was done for drama, for Hollywood effect.”

Benjamin Gedan, a foreign policy fellow at Johns Hopkins University who worked on Venezuela issues during the Obama administration, noted that the US going after alleged drug traffickers is not necessarily unusual, but the use of force raises questions.

“Normally, the US would attempt to interdict the ship, board, arrest the alleged drug traffickers, try to prosecute them, maybe turn them on more senior figures in these drug trafficking organizations, seize money, seize drugs,” he explained.

“Firing from the air and killing 11 alleged drug traffickers is not the typical approach,” he said.

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