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A suspected drug-smuggling vessel was wiped out in a lethal U.S. military strike Wednesday in the Eastern Pacific, killing three alleged “narco-terrorists” aboard, according to the Department of War.
Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere carried out the Sept. 9 strike under the direction of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) after intelligence allegedly tied the vessel to drug trafficking.
“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” the department said in a post on X. “The operation killed three narco-terrorists.”
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The operation marked the latest U.S. attack on suspected cartel vessels accused of moving deadly narcotics along known trafficking routes off the coast of Latin America.
It came less than two weeks after the Pentagon released newly unclassified images to Fox News Digital showing suspected drug boats speeding across open water, including one vessel loaded with what appeared to be bundles of narcotics.
The images, dated Oct. 27, Oct. 29 and Dec. 4, 2025, offered a rare look at suspected smugglers under U.S. military surveillance as the Trump administration intensified its campaign against cartel networks.
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Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson accompanied the release with a deadly warning for traffickers who threaten American communities.
“Nearly one year after the first strike, the message to narco-terrorists remains unchanged: if you traffic deadly illicit narcotics and threaten the American people, we will hunt you down, we will find you, and we will kill you,” Wilson told Fox News Digital at the time.
The Pentagon said Operation Southern Spear had carried out 67 strikes as of late August, beginning with the first operation on Sept. 2, 2025.
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The Pentagon said Operation Southern Spear had carried out 67 strikes as of late August. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo, File)
Wilson said the campaign had disrupted trafficking networks, forced smugglers to change their tactics and removed “dangerous narcoterrorists.”
“Operation Southern Spear has disrupted trafficking networks, forced trafficker adaptations, removed dangerous narcoterrorists, and demonstrated that the United States will use every lawful tool available to defend our Homeland and protect our communities,” Wilson said.
One of the most recent strikes came Aug. 25, when U.S. Southern Command said four alleged drug smugglers were killed aboard a fast boat operating along known trafficking routes in the Caribbean.
“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” SOUTHCOM said at the time.
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The operation was carried out by Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere under the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan.
“Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere continues executing precise, lethal operations against the cartels,” Donovan said. “We will hunt, disrupt, and defeat these narco-terrorist networks.”
“SOUTHCOM is resolved to neutralizing cartel terror and violence throughout the region and into the U.S. homeland,” he added.
Days before that Caribbean strike, the U.S. military said two people were killed in an attack on a vessel in the Eastern Pacific. It was the first reported strike in more than two months.
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Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a news briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images, File)
President Donald Trump has described the fight as an “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and argued the attacks are necessary to stop drugs from reaching American communities and fueling fatal overdoses.
The administration is also pursuing agreements with allied nations that could extend the campaign onto land in several Latin American countries.
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War Secretary Pete Hegseth said during an August visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to conduct joint operations against criminal groups on their soil, though Guatemala denied that an agreement had been reached. Ecuador began similar missions with the U.S. in March.
Fox News Digital’s Eric Mack contributed to this report.
