The US military has conducted another strike on a vessel suspected of carrying illicit drugs in the Eastern Pacific, resulting in the deaths of four people aboard the boat. This latest incident is part of a contentious campaign launched by the Trump administration to combat drug trafficking in the region.
According to US media reports, the attack was directly authorized by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The US Southern Command confirmed the operation and released a video of the incident on social media. The Southern Command stated that intelligence officials had verified the presence of narcotics on the boat, which was reportedly navigating a known drug trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific.
The US military has been conducting continuous strikes on vessels suspected of drug smuggling in the coastal waters of Latin America since early September. So far, at least 22 such attacks have been carried out in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean. The Trump administration asserts that all targeted vessels were engaged in drug smuggling, though tangible evidence supporting these claims has often not been provided. The controversial nature of this counter-narcotics campaign has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
