U.S. military destroys alleged drug-smuggling boat in Pacific Ocean, killing 2 people

The United States military said Monday it carried out a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Pacific Ocean, killing two people.

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a post on X that the strike, which took place Sunday, targeted a vessel “operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific.”

“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” it added.

“This operation is a clear and decisive reminder that SOUTHCOM is taking the fight directly to the cartels,” SOUTHCOM said.

Grainy black-and-white video footage accompanying the post showed a boat moving through the water before a large explosion. The military did not identify the style of boat but it appears to be a long semi-submersible vessel, sometimes called a “narco sub.”

Narco subs, which cannot go fully underwater, are popular among international drug traffickers as they can sometimes elude detection by law enforcement.

“We are committed to imposing total systemic friction on narco-terrorists — disrupting their operations, dismantling their leadership, and eliminating cartel terror across the region,” Gen. Francis L. Donovan said in a statement Monday.

The U.S. military launched operation “Southern Spear” last September, with President Trump arguing Washington is effectively at war with drug cartels operating out of Latin America.

Since then, more than 200 people have been killed in strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

The Trump administration has not provided definitive evidence that the vessels it has been striking are involved in drug trafficking.

Critics of the strikes have questioned the overall legality as well as their effectiveness. Part of the argument has been that the fentanyl behind many fatal U.S. drug overdoses is typically trafficked over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

U.S. lawmakers have previously demanded that the Pentagon release “unedited video” of the very first strike that the military conducted after reports emerged that the U.S. chose to conduct a follow-on strike on survivors of its initial attack.

Some lawmakers have questioned whether that follow-on strike constituted a war crime. The Defense Department and several congressional Republicans have insisted the survivors may have still been in the fight, warranting the follow-on strike.

The Pentagon’s watchdog said in May that it planned to look into whether the U.S. military followed an established targeting framework when carrying out the strikes. However, the evaluation is focused specifically on what’s known as the six-phase Joint Targeting Cycle and not on the legality of the strikes, the inspector general’s office said.

In June, the U.S. military conducted a strike in the Caribbean against a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the region, killing two people and leaving six survivors.