The U.S. military said it conducted another strike against a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, killing two people, as part of a broader campaign targeting suspected drug trafficking in the region. The statement was announced by U.S. Southern Command on social media, and the military also released video from the operation.
The military said the strike brought the total number of known boat strikes to 30, and it said the number of people killed is at least 107 since early September, figures it attributed to numbers announced by the Trump administration. In the same release, the military said the vessel “was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” without providing evidence to support the characterization.
The Southern Command video, posted to social media, showed a boat traveling through the water before it was struck by two explosions. The AP report did not provide additional proof or documentation of the alleged trafficking beyond the military’s characterization of the target.
Trump has justified the attacks as an escalation intended to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. In comments reported by the AP, Trump said the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, framing the strikes in conflict terms rather than as isolated law-enforcement actions.
Alongside the boat strikes, the Trump administration has built military forces in the region as part of what the report described as escalating pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States, according to the AP story.
Trump also tied U.S. actions to Venezuela’s alleged drug infrastructure when he was asked by reporters Monday about an “explosion in Venezuela.” He said the U.S. had “hit” a dock facility along a shore where boats accused of carrying drugs “load up,” according to the AP account, and the White House and the Pentagon did not provide other details.
The AP report said the scrutiny lawmakers have faced over the boat strike campaign has grown as revelations emerged about earlier attacks. It said the campaign grew amid disclosures that the first attack in early September involved a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to wreckage after the first hit.