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Posted on 10/05/2026 11:07:15 AM PDT by NorthMountain
The U.S. military fired upon a suspected drug boat operating in the Caribbean Sea on Oct. 4, killing four.
“Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking,” the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a press statement announcing the strike. “The operation killed four narco-terrorists.”
Along with the statement, SOUTHCOM shared footage purporting to show the moment the suspect vessel was bombed.
The military command did not provide any additional identifying information about those killed aboard the vessel or their affiliations.
Since early 2025, the State Department has designated several Latin American drug trafficking cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
In September 2025, U.S. forces launched a new campaign of lethal strikes on suspected drug boats, dubbed Operation Southern Spear. In the past year, U.S. forces have claimed responsibility for at least 70 such lethal strikes in the Caribbean and East Pacific, killing more than 200 people.
Amid this ongoing campaign of strikes on suspected drug boats, the United States has led in the formation of a new multinational effort known as the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition. Eighteen Western Hemisphere nations have since partnered with the United States on this countertrafficking effort.
“We’re definitely expanding our presence and our footprint in Central and South America with partners,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters on Oct. 3, while visiting the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Hegseth said the United States has expanded options for its military posture in Central and South America after capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a special operations raid on Jan. 3.
He said growing partnerships with Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Panama have also strengthened U.S. influence in the region.
“We are at war with the drug cartels … the president has been clear about that,” Hegseth said. “So, we’re going to posture and base as necessary to ensure that we have our foot on the pedal and are taking the fight to those ISIS and Al Qaeda of our hemisphere.”
While President Donald Trump and other members of his administration have said strikes on suspected drug boats are a necessary measure in a war against narcoterrorism, some critics have raised concerns about the legality of the strikes and the lack of clarity about who has been killed in these operations.
In January, the families of two Trinidadian nationals who have been missing since October 2025 filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the United States. The plaintiffs alleged the two missing men had been working as migrant laborers in neighboring Venezuela, and were likely killed by U.S. forces in an Oct. 14 strike as they tried to return to Trinidad and Tobago. “Congress and the American people have yet to see any evidence to support the president’s unilateral determinations that these vessels, or the activities of those on board, warrant lethal military force rather than law enforcement-led interdiction,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said last month as the campaign of boat strikes crossed the one-year mark.
Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) cited the ongoing campaign of drone strikes in a set of impeachment articles he brought against Hegseth last month. Massie said the campaign of strikes on suspected drug boats replaced regular maritime law enforcement with extrajudicial killings.
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I guess it isn't "the latest thing" any more ... nobody seems to notice much.
It has been quiet regarding news of this. Glad to hear we are still taking them out.
I hadn’t paid much attention for a while ... apparently every few days “another one bites the dust”. Good news indeed!
i see that President Trump is still denying international cartel drug runners living in foreign lands their inalienable human rights to appear before leftist foreigner Federal judges appointed by Biden so that they can be released into the general population of the USA ...
Democrats to start crying in 3, 2, 1...
Suspected. Let’s hope there’s plenty of evidence to be shown. There have been so many kills that a case of mistaken identity could easily be covered up amongst the rest of them.
The governments cooperation in this is a bit surprising. Drug dealing is the closest thing in ‘aid’ directly to those in poverty. Could be they’re scared of the narco terrorists or they’re in with them. If Mexico is the big holdout how do we take theirs out? Seems we have the upper hand-always have. We got Trump now. It’s like the Tijuana sewage creeping up into San Diego.
Could you show the blowup scene?
Too bad it isn’t interesting enough to broadcast anymore. I LOVED seeing the footage.
“The plaintiffs alleged the two missing men were likely killed by U.S. forces”
LIKELY? ... what kind of BS is that?
a lawsuit like that should simply be tossed with prejudice AND lack of standing ... good thing all those Japs and Germans killed in WWII didn’t sue us then ...
Impeachment articles he brought against Hegseth last month.
Shows who has a hand in the profit edge of that business????
Dep't of War just needs to report that the Navy crew was made up entirely of post-partum females with military-grade bungy cords.
Wait! Did they axe ‘em to stop first?
So what else is new except the date changed?
“The article only has this (FLIR?) image:”
i’m guessing that’s a “before” image ...
I would assume that we have intelligence assets in country who see the boats leaving port and forward that data, so we don’t sink some rich millionaire and his family out in their cigar speedboat.
“Congress and the American people have yet to see any evidence to support the president’s unilateral determinations that these vessels, or the activities of those on board, warrant lethal military force rather than law enforcement-led interdiction,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.)
Why would drug boats have more than one person?
Maybe two pilots for long distance trips.
But - four dead?
It's only a small start. In our post-modern, leftist society, surreptitiously killing smugglers on a drug boat far out at sea, away from media, is about all Trump can do.
Real progress would be publicly hanging drug-dealers in the USA. But we know America is very far from that happening.
We also don't want to sink Julio the Fisherman and his buddies.
Tuco the Drugrunner gets what he deserves.
At Least 70 boats...
Wonder the average PayLoad
Of ‘Booger Sugar’?
400 lbs were caught near
Los Angeles last few Days.
.
Makes for expensive blow.
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