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The U.S. military said Monday it carried out another lethal strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that it claims was involved in drug trafficking, killing two people — the latest escalation in a monthslong campaign ordered by President Donald Trump that has drawn growing legal and political scrutiny.
U.S. Southern Command said the vessel was operating in international waters and was linked to “Designated Terrorist Organizations,” a label the Trump administration has recently extended to several Latin American drug cartels. The military did not identify the group involved or publicly release evidence that drugs were aboard the vessel.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” Southern Command said in a post on X. “Two male narco-terrorists were killed.”
Monday’s strike brings the total number of people killed in U.S. military boat strikes to at least 107 since early September, according to Defense Department figures — with more than 30 vessels targeted as part of an aggressive interdiction campaign near Latin America’s Pacific coast.
Trump administration officials argue the strikes are a necessary response to transnational drug trafficking networks and say they have significantly disrupted cartel supply routes. But critics in Congress and abroad warn the operations are pushing the United States into legally murky territory, with little public accountability and no explicit authorization from lawmakers.
The administration has justified the strikes by asserting that the U.S. is engaged in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels — a claim that some legal experts dispute, noting that Congress has not authorized the use of military force against such groups.
Trump on Monday pointed to the campaign as a success, telling reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate that the U.S. had recently destroyed what he described as a major drug facility tied to boat operations.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said. “That is no longer around.”
The president did not disclose the location of the strike. However, The New York Times reported that Trump was referring to a facility in Venezuela, a country he has repeatedly accused of facilitating drug trafficking.
The Trump administration has long accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of working with drug cartels and terrorist-designated gangs, allegations Maduro denies. The U.S. has recently intensified pressure on Venezuela, including seizing sanctioned oil tankers and announcing what Trump has described as a “blockade” of vessels connected to the country’s energy sector.
The boat strikes have prompted criticism from Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans, who argue the administration has failed to demonstrate that the targeted vessels were carrying drugs or posed an imminent threat to the United States. Foreign governments, including Colombia and Venezuela, have also raised concerns about sovereignty and civilian harm.
Despite the backlash, the administration has signaled no intention of scaling back the campaign, framing it as a core pillar of Trump’s broader effort to combat drug trafficking through expanded military force rather than traditional law enforcement channels.
