The U.S. military carried out a lethal operation on Friday against an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two individuals it labeled as narco-terrorists, according to U.S. Southern Command (Southcom). The strike marks the latest action in an aggressive campaign that has drawn both support and skepticism over its legal basis and evidentiary standards.
Southcom said the boat was operated by an unnamed terrorist organization and was traveling along known drug-smuggling routes. A Southcom social media post stated, “Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action, and one survived the strike.” The post included aerial video footage showing the vessel engulfed in flames after being targeted.
No U.S. service members were harmed, and the Coast Guard was notified to initiate search and rescue for the survivor, the command added. This operation is part of Operation Southern Spear, a campaign that has seen more than 50 strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 190 people since early September.
The most recent similar strike occurred on Monday in the Caribbean, also resulting in two deaths. The Trump administration has not publicly released evidence that any of the targeted boats were carrying illegal drugs at the time of the strikes, leading to questions from Democrats and legal experts about the operations’ legality. The White House has argued that congressional approval is not required for these actions.
President Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a centerpiece of his second term. Early in his return to office, he designated several Latin American cartels and organized crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations. This week, he signed a new counterterrorism strategy that prioritizes “the neutralization of hemispheric terror threats by incapacitating cartel operations,” according to White House Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka.
“We will continue to find and remove the cartel and gang members who were let into our country under the Biden administration while using FTO foreign terrorist organization designation to strangle the commercial and logistics venues of their lethal organizations,” Gorka told reporters Wednesday.
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In parallel developments, the administration has also tightened sanctions on Cuba, targeting a military-led conglomerate and a mining venture, as reported by our team. Meanwhile, tensions with Iran remain high after Trump threatened escalated strikes unless Tehran accepts peace terms, following a series of U.S. strikes in the region.
