Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in the Caribbean on Aug. 25, 2026. U.S. Southern Command/X
The U.S. military said it carried out a lethal strike against a vessel transporting narcotics in the Caribbean, killing four people it identified as members of a drug-trafficking network.
The strike, conducted on Aug. 25, is the latest in a series of U.S. military operations targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against narco-terrorists.
The military did not disclose the precise location of the strike, identify the individuals killed, or say whether drugs were recovered from the vessel.
It also did not specify which military assets participated in the mission or whether any partner nations were involved.
“We will hunt, disrupt, and defeat these narco-terrorist networks,” Gen. Francis L. Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, said. “SOUTHCOM is resolved to neutralizing cartel terror and violence throughout the region and into the U.S. homeland.”
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The operations stem in part from a Jan. 20, 2025, executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing his administration to designate several Latin American narcotics cartels as terrorist organizations.
A designation notice, published in the Federal Register on Feb. 20, 2025, includes groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, and El Salvador-based MS-13.
The administration has said that these groups pose a transnational security threat.
The military operations coincide with the Trump administration’s effort to build a multinational coalition against drug cartels.
During a visit to Panama on Aug. 12, U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the United States remained committed to working with regional partners through the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (L) arrives for the closing ceremony of the multinational Panamax 2026 military exercises in Panama City, on August 13, 2026. Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images
The coalition is a U.S.-led alliance launched in March to combat transnational drug cartels, reduce illegal immigration, and counter foreign influence in the Western Hemisphere.
Hegseth said coalition members were prepared to take “concrete steps — sometimes risky steps, courageous steps — in partnership” to dismantle cartels operating across the region.
Human Rights Watch has said the operations violate international law.
In a December 2025 analysis, it said the United States was carrying out “extrajudicial killings” by using lethal force against suspected drug traffickers without demonstrating a lawful basis or identifying those killed.
“The United States has a legitimate interest in preventing drug trafficking into its territory, but this is a matter of law enforcement,” the organization said.
