Donald Trump may have paused military strikes on Iran following a ceasefire, but his war on drug traffickers is showing no signs of slowing down. The U.S. military blew up another suspected narco vessel in the Eastern Pacific on Wednesday, killing three people on board.
U.S. Southern Command announced the latest strike, saying a three-engine speedboat operated by a “Designated Terrorist Organization” was destroyed after intelligence confirmed it was moving along known drug trafficking routes. TMZ reported the story and published video of the moment a missile slammed into the vessel, turning it into a fireball. No U.S. military personnel were harmed.
Wednesday’s strike was the fourth in just five days under Operation Southern Spear, pushing the weekly death toll from military boat strikes to at least 14 suspected narco-terrorists. The rapid pace of strikes signals the administration is intensifying its counter-narcotics campaign even as diplomatic activity continues on other fronts.
What is Operation Southern Spear
Operation Southern Spear was launched in September 2025 to cut off the flow of illegal drugs into the United States by targeting trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean. The Hill reported that the Pentagon has now carried out dozens of such strikes, killing more than 150 people since the campaign began.
The operation has also been used as a pressure tool against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested by U.S. forces in January 2026 on drug trafficking and weapons-related charges. Maduro and his wife are currently on trial in a Manhattan federal court.
Legal controversy and international criticism
The strikes have drawn significant pushback from legal experts, human rights organizations, and foreign governments. The Trump administration has repeatedly described targeted vessels as being operated by groups like Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua or Colombian guerrilla outfit the National Liberation Army, but has produced little public evidence to support those claims.
Experts have argued the strikes violate both U.S. and international law, and Colombia and Venezuela have accused Washington of carrying out extrajudicial killings. Trump has threatened to resume Iran strikes if peace talks fail, signaling that military action remains a live option on multiple fronts. The administration has also previously warned that Iran’s remaining ships would be immediately destroyed if the situation escalated.
Despite bipartisan concern in Congress, the Republican-controlled Senate voted twice to reject resolutions that would have limited Trump’s authority to continue the boat strikes.
