US strikes second ‘drug boat’ in one week leaving 133 dead

The US has struck another alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, its military has said.

In a post on X, the US Southern Command confirmed it had targeted the suspected drug vessel in a kinetic strike yesterday – the second operation this week.

It added the strike had killed three suspected narco-trafficking terrorists on the boat, which was operated by a designated ‘terror organisation’ and was traversing a known smuggling route.

The force said: ‘At the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.

‘Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking operations.

‘Three narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.’

Friday’s attack is thought to be the first of its kind in the Caribbean since last November, but the second strike on a boat thought to be carrying drugs by the US this week.

On Monday US forces announced they had launched a strike on another in the eastern pacific ocean.

Two suspected drug traffickers were killed while a third survived the attack, the Southern Command confirmed.

A search and rescue operation was then launched to look for the survivor, it added.

Footage of the strike showed a boat bursting into flames in the water after being hit by what appears to be a missile.

A total of 133 people are said to have been killed from strikes on suspect narco-trafficking vessels, according to the Intercept.

Legal experts have questioned whether operations to curb drug imports by the Trump administration are compliant with international law, although the US is not a signatory to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer specialising in counterterrorism, said the administration had given itself a ‘licence to kill’ without clear limits.

He said: ‘This administration has asserted the prerogative to kill people outside the law, solely on the basis of the president labelling them terrorists.

‘The president has wielded that authority in the Caribbean and the Pacific and could wield it domestically.’

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