US forces on Saturday launched a strike against alleged drug traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people, the military said.
“Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organisations” along an apparent narco‑trafficking route, the US Southern Command posted on X, adding that “three male narco‑terrorists were killed during this action.”
The post included a black-and-white video of the strike showing an aerial view of the boat before it was bombed and engulfed in flames.
The United States began targeting suspected smuggling boats in early September, killing nearly 150 people in total and destroying dozens of vessels since then.
Under President Donald Trump, the United States has routinely conducted these strikes without providing definitive evidence of illegal activity, prompting legal experts to raise concerns that the deaths could be considered extrajudicial killings.
The strikes are part of a campaign that the Trump administration has insisted is necessary to combat drug trafficking.
US naval forces have also been stationed off the coast of South America, oil tankers seized, and a high-profile raid carried out that captured Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro is currently incarcerated in the US awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
