Three people killed as US military strikes another alleged narcotics boat in the Pacific Ocean

Euronews · Feb 21, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Published on 21/02/2026 - 8:27 GMT+1 The US said its military has carried out another strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the Eastern Pacific Ocean late on Friday, killing three people. The US Southern Command announced in a post on X that it had conducted a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel its intelligence had identified as a narcotics trafficking boat “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific”. “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed.” The strike was part of Operation Southern Spear, a controversial initiative launched by US President Donald Trump to combat the illegal flow of narcotics into the United States. Many boats have been targeted and struck in dozens of operations spanning months, which have killed at least 148 people in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Many have questioned the legality of these operations, which often target vessels in open and international waters, though the Trump administration has defended its initiative, saying it only targets narco-terrorists and does so legally. Trump has said Washington 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 “narco-terrorists.” Many have also questioned the rationale, as one of the main substances plaguing the US for years has been fentanyl, which is typically trafficked into the US over land from Mexico where it is produced, using chemicals imported from China and India. The operations started in the last quarter of 2025, particularly in waters near Venezuela, leading to tensions between Washington and Caracas, with Trump having accused his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro of being a narco-terrorist himself. The standoff culminated with the US staging a stunning military operation in Caracas early in January, which captured Maduro and his wife and extradited them to New York, where they face charges of narco-trafficking. The US military has however continued to strike boats in the weeks following the operation. The White House says narcotics have become a rampant issue domestically, particularly affecting the country’s youth, and is an issue that has been neglected by previous administrations. Trump says the operations will continue until all transnational criminal networks responsible for supplying drugs across the border are dismantled and no longer pose a threat to national security.