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United States Southern Command said Monday that recent U.S. military strikes targeting suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific killed eight men described as narco-terrorists.
The strikes are part of the Trump administration’s expanded campaign against maritime drug smuggling, particularly vessels believed to be operating from Venezuela. U.S. officials say more than 20 such strikes have been carried out, resulting in the deaths of more than 90 alleged narco-terrorists.
“On Dec. 15, at the direction of [War Secretary] Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters,” SOUTHCOM said in a post on X.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking,” the post added.
According to the command, the eight men killed were spread across three vessels. Three were aboard the first boat, two were on the second and three were on the third.
Officials did not immediately disclose the nationality of the ships or the specific drugs believed to have been transported at the time of the strikes.
SOUTHCOM said the operations were conducted in international waters and were based on intelligence identifying the vessels as part of drug trafficking networks tied to designated terrorist organizations.
The Trump administration has framed the strikes as part of a broader effort to disrupt illicit drug smuggling routes before narcotics reach the United States. U.S. officials have increasingly characterized major drug trafficking organizations as narco-terrorist groups, arguing that military force is necessary to degrade their operations and reduce the flow of drugs into the country.
The announcement followed a similar strike of a suspected drug-smuggling vessel in the Eastern Pacific earlier this month, which killed four men described as “narco-terrorists” amid continued scrutiny over the administration’s counternarcotics strategy.
The operation is the latest in a series of strikes carried out under the Trump administration in its effort to disrupt drug routes used by groups the U.S. links to terrorism and transnational crime. The administration has conducted more than 20 such strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, resulting in at least 87 deaths.