The U.S. struck another alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific on Thursday, killing two people, U.S. Southern Command announced on social media.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," the post on X said. "Two narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.”
The strike is at least the 35th since September but only the second since the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro, then the president of Venezuela, in a military operation on Jan. 3 and brought him to the U.S. on charges that include narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy. Maduro, who is being held in a New York jail, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The Trump administration has argued that the strikes, which have killed at least 116 people, serve the national security purpose of stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S.
The latest strike is also the first since President Donald Trump met this week with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who has repeatedly decried the strikes, comparing them to war crimes. Colombian citizens have been injured or killed in the previous strikes.
Trump has said stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S. is one of his priorities, and he told reporters Tuesday that he and Petro — whom he had previously called a “drug leader” — discussed counternarcotics efforts.
Southern Command’s announcement Thursday did not specify where the boat was coming from or where it was headed.
The U.S. military has conducted dozens of lethal strikes since September. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced scrutiny over a Sept. 2 strike during which the military hit a boat again after the first strike failed to kill all of its occupants.
Some legal experts have said the second strike could be a war crime if it was ordered with the intent to kill survivors who were incapacitated. A defense official told NBC News in December that the admiral who ordered the second strike saw the survivors as legitimate military targets, and Hegseth has defended the admiral.
