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The U.S. military conducted another strike on a suspected drug trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people on board, the Pentagon said Sunday.
U.S. Southern Command said in a social media statement that “intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.” The command said the boat was operating in international waters when it was targeted by Joint Task Force Southern Spear.
The strike was the twenty-first known attack on suspected drug boats since early September, part of what the U.S. has described as a justified campaign to reduce the flow of narcotics into the country. Pentagon data shows that more than 80 people have been killed in the operations.
The Trump administration has maintained that it has the authority to conduct the strikes, despite pushback from Democrats. As RSBN previously reported, The U.S. Coast Guard reported a record year for cocaine seizures, collecting 225 metric tons over the past 12 months. Despite that milestone, President Donald Trump has pushed forward with a dramatic shift in U.S. anti-drug operations.
The Coast Guard’s recent record cocaine seizure was nearly 40 percent higher than the annual average of the past decade. The haul included 38 tons of cocaine offloaded by the cutter Hamilton after a two-month patrol, the largest amount recovered by a single Coast Guard ship during one deployment. Several cutters also reported major seizures last month as part of Operation Pacific Viper, even during the federal government shutdown.
Most interdictions result in suspects being transported to the United States for prosecution and in authorities collecting intelligence that tracks shifting smuggling patterns. Experts say missile strikes on boats are far more expensive than traditional interdictions and eliminate any chance of gaining information.
“The Coast Guard has extraordinary powers and authorities to do effective drug interdiction without killing unidentified people on small boats,” said Douglas Farah, a national security expert on Latin America and president of IBI Consultants. “When resourced, they are far more effective, sustainable and likely legal than the current Pentagon-led operations.”
