US Strikes Drug Boat in Eastern Pacific, Three Killed

United States forces launched a strike against a vessel suspected of carrying narcotics in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people.

“Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike against a vessel operated by a Terrorist Organisation” along a drug smuggling route, US Southern Command posted on social media platform X, as reported by AFP news agency on Saturday (21/2/2026). It stated that “three narco-terrorist males were killed during this action.”

The post included a black-and-white video of the strike, showing an aerial view of a vessel before it was bombed and engulfed in flames.

The United States military began targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in early September last year, killing nearly 150 people in total and destroying dozens of vessels since then.

Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the United States has routinely carried out these strikes without providing definitive evidence of illegal activity aboard the targeted vessels.

The strikes form part of a campaign that the Trump administration says is necessary to combat the narcotics trade.

The United States has also deployed naval forces off the coast of South America, seized oil tankers, and conducted a surprise operation that resulted in the arrest of left-wing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro is currently imprisoned in the US awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.