US Navy Intercepts Suspected Drug Boat in Pacific

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific Ocean, officials said Thursday. The strike resulted in two fatalities.

U.S. Military Strikes on Suspected Drug Vessels

U.S. Southern Command stated on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” A video accompanying the post shows a boat exploding in flames.

The announcement came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” Hegseth made the claim in a post on his personal social media account but provided no supporting details.

Neither U.S. Southern Command nor the Pentagon responded to requests for further information regarding Hegseth’s claim.

These boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have decreased in frequency since January, with only one strike reported that month following the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. In December 2025, the Pentagon struck more than a dozen boats.

Thursday’s attack brings the total death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. The military reported last week that the figure had risen to 126, including those presumed dead after being lost at sea. This total includes 116 people killed in at least 36 attacks since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, according to U.S. Southern Command. Ten others are believed to be dead after search efforts were unsuccessful following a strike.

The families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in October have sued the federal government, alleging the attack was a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign.” The suit is the first wrongful death case to arise from the campaign and is expected to challenge the legal basis of the attacks, which some experts consider a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.

President Donald Trump has stated the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to curb drug trafficking. However, his administration has offered limited evidence to support claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”