Americas
US strikes against alleged drug boats have slowed but not stopped
Staff and wire reports
February 7, 2026
The U.S. military said Feb. 5, 2026, that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Southern Command)
The United States has carried out at least 37 attacks since early September against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
The death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes is 128 people. The total includes those presumed dead after being lost at sea.
The latest attack came Thursday, according to a news release from U.S. Southern Command.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the release said. Two people were killed; no U.S. personnel were injured.
The strike was announced just hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.”
Hegseth made the claim in a post on his personal account on social media.
The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency. Thursday’s was the second strike since U.S. conducted a large-scale operation in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, on Jan. 3 that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were then flown to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.
President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
Contributing: The Associated Press