President Donald Trump’s campaign against suspected drug smuggling has left at least 145 people dead since September.
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Published February 17, 2026
The U.S. military says it has carried out three airstrikes on drug-trafficking ships in the Pacific and Caribbean, killing at least 11 people.
The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees military operations in Latin America, announced it had carried out two strikes in the Eastern Pacific and one in the Caribbean as part of an operation dubbed Operation Southern Spear. All three attacks were carried out late Monday.
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“During these actions, 11 male narco-terrorists were killed, four on the first ship in the Eastern Pacific, four on the second ship in the Eastern Pacific, and three on the third ship in the Caribbean,” Southcom said in a social media post Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has been attacking suspected drug-trafficking vessels in waters off the coast of South America since September 2, as part of a broader operation against drug cartels in the region.
But legal experts have condemned the campaign as a series of extrajudicial killings.
At least 145 people have been killed in 42 strikes since September, and President Trump has pitched the campaign as an effort to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.
However, the identities of those killed have not been officially released, nor has any evidence been released to support claims that they were involved in drug trafficking.
Families in Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago have come forward saying the victims are their loved ones. Some of the suspected victims were identified as fishermen or temporary workers traveling from Venezuela to nearby islands.
Some family members have taken legal action to seek justice.
In December, the family of missing fisherman Alejandro Carranza filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and in late January, relatives of two Trinidad workers, Chad Joseph and Rishi Samaroo, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Massachusetts state court.
However, the Trump administration has said it is in a state of armed conflict with drug-trafficking organizations and has designated some of them foreign terrorist organizations.
However, these claims have been rejected by international law experts, who maintain that there is no armed conflict and that the Trump administration is instead using lethal force in response to criminal acts.
U.N. officials warned of a violation of the U.N. Charter and called on the U.S. to halt the military attack.
“None of the people on board the targeted boats posed an imminent threat to the life of others or would justify the use of deadly force under international law,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in October.
However, the Trump administration pressed ahead with the bombing campaign despite criticism of its legality. It even promised to shift to eradicating drug trafficking targets on land as well as at sea.
“Presidents’ Day under President Trump has proven not to be a good day to flow drugs,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a social media post showing footage of the ship being attacked.
