U.S. kills two in Pacific strike of alleged drug-trafficking boat

by · UPI

April 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. military on Monday conducted another strike of an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people, U.S. Southern Command said.

The boat was the 50th that the Trump administration said it has attacked with use of the U.S. military to combat drug crimes since operations began in early September, according to a Pentagon posture statement from mid-March and subsequent SOUTHCOM releases.

With two killed, the known death toll rises to 170, according to UPI's tally of the available figures.

As has been the case with previous strikes, little information about the Monday attack was made public.

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Without providing evidence, SOUTHCOM alleged in a statement that the attacked vessel was operated by unidentified designated terrorist organizations and that intelligence confirmed it was "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations."

On social media, SOUTHCOM released an 18-second black-and-white video of the attack. The aerial footage shows a small boat appearing at rest on the ocean. A series of explosions disrupt the quiet of the scene, engulfing the vessel in flames. As the flames dissipate, smoke emanates from the vessel.

On Saturday, the U.S. military killed five people on two alleged drug-trafficking boats, leaving one survivor, who SOUTHCOM said was to be rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

UPI has contacted the U.S. Coast Guard for confirmation.

The survivor's condition was unknown.

The U.S. military has been conducting what it calls "lethal kinetic strikes" targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats since Sept. 2 as part of President Donald Trump's anti-drug trafficking agenda.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has designated 10 drug cartels and gangs a terrorist organizations and has defended the use of the military by claiming the United States is in "armed conflict" with them.

Democrats, human rights organizations and United Nations experts have repeatedly condemned the strikes as unlawful or extrajudicial killings, arguing the Trump administration is using the military to conduct what are ostensibly law enforcement operations and then executing suspects without due process.

In early November, about a month after the U.S. conducted its first strike, a group of U.N. experts condemned the attacks as "unlawful killings carried out by order of a government, without judicial or legal process allowing due process of law."

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has separately accused the U.S. government of murdering a fisherman in one of the U.S. military's early strikes.

Monday's attack was the fifth publicly acknowledged attack on boats in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean since the U.S.-Israel war against Iran began on Feb. 28.