Three Killed in Latest U.S. Strike on Suspected Drug Boat
Forces with Joint Task Force Southern Spear struck an alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing three men, on Thursday.
The strike was the 65th since President Donald Trump announced the first ones in September 2025. At least 208 people have been killed, including the three men from Thursday’s strike and three from a strike on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s strike initially left two survivors, USNI News previously reported. The Coast Guard called off search and rescue operations after 20 hours and a search area of 46 miles, according to a post on social media site X.
Both Tuesday’s and Thursday’s strikes were in the Eastern Pacific, as were the majority of strikes in 2026. Of the 30 strikes since Jan. 1, 2026, four were in the Caribbean.
Ecuador and Colombia, which border the Eastern Pacific, are part of the global cocaine supply. American officials have called Ecuador the “cocaine superhighway,” The New York Times reported.The Trump administration has said that the alleged drug boats carry fentanyl and cocaine, although it has offered little public evidence to back the claims.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show drug deaths, from fentanyl, which accounts for the majority of fatal overdoses, and cocaine have dropped since late summer/early fall 2023.
The number of fatal overdoses due to cocaine dropped by less than a percentage between September and October, October and November and November and December. While there was a slightly larger percentage change between September and October than the other months, prior to the strikes, the percentage change between months was between 1-2 percent.
Fentanyl overdoses saw the lowest percentage change in 2025 between August and September. Between September and October, it increased, but the biggest percentage changes were in the months before the strikes began, according to CDC data, with changes above 2 percent.
It is not clear what effect the strikes on the drug boats have had on fatal overdoses. CDC data do not show significant decreases month-to-month after the drug strikes began compared to months before they did. There is no CDC data available for 2026.
