ALBAWABA- The United States military has carried out three lethal strikes on vessels it says were involved in drug smuggling operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced on Tuesday.
Two of the strikes occurred in the Eastern Pacific, where four people were killed in each attack, and the third in the Caribbean resulted in three deaths.
SOUTHCOM said intelligence indicated the vessels were transiting known narcotics trafficking routes and were operated by groups it has designated as terrorist organizations, but provided no independent verification of drug cargo. No U.S. military personnel were harmed in the operations.
The actions are part of a broader U.S. campaign known as Operation Southern Spear, launched in September 2025 under the Trump administration to combat what it calls “narco-terrorism” at sea.
The series of maritime strikes has now involved dozens of engagements across the Pacific and Caribbean, with U.S. officials framing cartel-linked smuggling as a security threat that justifies kinetic action in international waters.
However, legal and human rights experts have sharply criticized the strategy, arguing that drug trafficking is a criminal activity rather than an armed conflict that would warrant lethal force without due process, and that targeting vessels on suspicion alone could violate international law.
Several Latin American governments, including Colombia and Venezuela, have condemned similar strikes as unlawful extrajudicial killings.
The latest strikes come amid heightened political debate in Washington about the legality and strategic effectiveness of using military force to disrupt drug routes, with some lawmakers and advocacy groups calling for investigations into the operations’ legal basis and oversight.
