US military strikes another alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific, killing two
US Southern Command struck an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific over the weekend, killing at least two people, Al Jazeera reported on June 22 . SOUTHCOM said the boat was traveling a “known drug-smuggling route” but offered no evidence that narcotics were aboard, and said it had notified the Coast Guard of six male survivors without detailing any rescue.
The strike is part of Operation Southern Spear, a campaign launched in September that has now hit more than 60 vessels and killed over 210 people. The Trump administration frames the operations as an “armed conflict” with Latin American cartels aimed at curbing drug overdoses.
The legal basis remains contested. Critics note that treating suspected smugglers as combatants subject to lethal strikes — rather than interdicting and arresting them — sidesteps law-enforcement norms, and that most US fentanyl arrives overland through Mexico rather than by sea, raising questions about the campaign’s effectiveness as well as its legality.