The U.S. military said it carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a drug-trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Feb. 9, killing two traffickers and leaving one survivor.
U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a statement on X that intelligence confirmed the boat was run by a designated terrorist organization and was traversing known drug-trafficking routes.
The military quickly notified the Coast Guard after the strike to activate a search-and-rescue effort for one survivor, according to the statement. It remains unclear whether the survivor has been recovered.
Southern Command did not specify the terrorist group involved.
This marked the second strike in less than a week, following a Feb. 5 operation in which the military struck another drug-smuggling vessel in the same region, killing two people on board.
Both operations are part of Operation Southern Spear, launched by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in November 2025 to tackle narco-terrorist activities in the Western Hemisphere.
“President [Donald] Trump ordered action—and the Department of War is delivering,” Hegseth said in a post on X.
“Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood—and we will protect it.”
Numerous strikes have been conducted in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific since September 2025 as the Trump administration sought to curb the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.
Last month, the military conducted a strike on a drug-trafficking boat in the Eastern Pacific that killed two people and triggered a search-and-rescue effort for a survivor.
In October, the Pentagon deployed the USS Gerald R. Ford, known as the world’s largest aircraft carrier, to the Southern Command area of responsibility—which encompasses Central America, South America, and the Caribbean—to support counter-narcotics operations in the region.
Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the drug boat strikes. In December, ranking member of the House Rules Committee Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), alongside ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), introduced a resolution in the House seeking to block U.S. military involvement in Venezuela that has not been authorized by Congress.
“I believe Congress has a duty to step in and assert our constitutional authority. No more illegal boat strikes, and no unauthorized war in Venezuela,” McGovern said in a Dec. 2, 2025, statement.
On Jan. 3, U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who is facing drug-trafficking charges in New York.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
