The U.S. military conducted a lethal strike on another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two suspected “narco-terrorists,” according to U.S. Southern Command (Southcom).
Southcom said the vessel was operated by an unnamed designated terrorist organization and was transiting along “known narco-trafficking routes” engaged in illicit drug trafficking.
“Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action, and one survived the strike,” a post on the social platform X stated. The post included alleged aerial video footage showing the vessel bursting into flames after it was targeted.
No U.S. service members were harmed, and the U.S. Coast Guard was notified to activate its search and rescue system for the survivor, according to the military command.
U.S. forces have carried out more than 50 strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in both the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as part of Operation Southern Spear, killing at least 190 people since the campaign began in early September.
The most recent strike, which also killed two alleged “narco-terrorists,” occurred in the Caribbean on Monday.
The Trump administration has not publicly provided evidence to support its claims that any of the boats were carrying illegal drugs when targeted, prompting skepticism from Democrats and some experts over whether the strikes are legal. The White House has previously claimed the operation does not require congressional approval.
President Trump has sought to aggressively crack down on drug cartels in his second term, designating several Latin American cartels and organized crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations in one of his first acts after returning to office.
Trump signed a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy this week that placed the “neutralization of hemispheric terror threats by incapacitating cartel operations” as the top priority, 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 on Wednesday.
