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Attack on alleged drug smugglers brings death toll from US military campaign against suspected drug boats to around 150.
Published On 23 Feb 2026
The United States military has announced another strike in the Caribbean Sea that it said targeted drug smugglers, killing three people.
The Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) of the US military shared footage of the attack on Monday, showing a small boat exploding and going up in flames after the strike.
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“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” SOUTHCOM said in a statement.
“Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No US military forces were harmed.”
The attack brings the death toll from US boat strikes that started last year to around 150.
Rights advocates have said the US military campaign targeting alleged drug smugglers amounts to extrajudicial killings and risks violating international and domestic laws.
The US administration has argued that all the targeted boats were carrying drugs, but it has offered little evidence other than grainy footage of the strikes.
United Nations experts warned last year that the attacks “appear to be unlawful killings carried out by order of a Government, without judicial or legal process allowing due process of law”.
“Unprovoked attacks and killings on international waters also violate international maritime laws,” the experts added.
“We have condemned and raised concerns about these attacks at sea to the United States Government.”
The strikes started in September of last year, as the US was building up its military assets in the Caribbean amid tensions with Venezuela. Since then, they have expanded and started targeting boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
A separate US strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat on Friday also killed three people.
The campaign has continued even after US forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro early in 2026.
Trump and other US officials have argued without providing evidence that each bombing saves thousands of lives from overdose deaths. But it is not clear whether the deadly campaign has significantly affected the drug trade in the region.
The latest attack comes as Mexican authorities push to curb violence by drug cartels after the killing of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel kingpin, Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho”.
Trump has been pushing to present himself as launching a literal war on drugs across the Western Hemisphere.
“Mexico must step up their effort on Cartels and Drugs!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The US has often accused its critics in Latin America, including Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, of ties to the drug trade.
At the same time, in December, he pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in US jails after being convicted of drug trafficking.
