U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean continued Friday, with U.S. Southern Command saying it carried out another deadly attack after identifying a vessel it accused of trafficking drugs, according to a post shared on social media.
The command said the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” and it said the strike killed three people. A video linked to the post showed a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames, the report said.
Friday’s attack raised the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 133 people in at least 38 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, according to the Associated Press report.
The AP report also described a broader campaign the administration has framed as escalating action against cartel drug trafficking. President Donald Trump has said the United States is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and that the attacks are a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs, the report said.
But the Associated Press reported that the administration has offered little evidence in support of its claims that it has been killing “narcoterrorists.” The same reporting said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared last week that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region had decided to cease all narcotics operations “INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean,” and that Hegseth did not provide details or information backing up the statement, which the report said was made in a social media post on his personal account.
The Friday strike arrived after repeated announcements of similar incidents by U.S. forces, with the administration citing the operations as part of an intensified effort against suspected trafficking routes. The renewed deaths underscore that the campaign continues to unfold publicly through official statements and accompanying media, even as questions persist about the evidentiary basis for some of the administration’s broader claims.