US Military Kills 3 in Eastern Pacific Boat Strike

The U.S. military killed three people on June 18 during a kinetic strike on a powerboat believed to be carrying drugs, the latest in a series of attacks on suspected narcotics traffickers.

The incident in the Eastern Pacific Ocean brings the number of people killed since the Trump administration began targeting “narcoterrorists” in early September to 211.

In a June 18 post on X, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) uploaded a video of aerial footage of a boat speeding through the water before exploding into flames.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” SOUTHCOM said. “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action.”

SOUTHCOM said the vessel was operated by designated terrorist organizations.

On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating several Latin American narcotics cartels as terrorist organizations.

The following month, Mexico’s Cártel de Sinaloa and Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua (TdA), and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) from El Salvador were formally designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.

SOUTHCOM is responsible for U.S. military operations across Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, including counter-narcotics missions aimed at dismantling drug trafficking networks that threaten U.S. interests.

U.S. forces have targeted a wide range of craft along major trafficking corridors—including semi-submersibles designed to evade radar detection, high-speed go-fast boats, and commercial fishing vessels—in international waters stretching from the southern Caribbean to the Eastern Pacific.

Trump has said the strikes are justified as the United States is involved in a war with Latin American drug cartels that are intent on getting narcotics into the country.

In November 2025, Trump said he would do whatever it takes to keep drugs out, including possible strikes on targets on land in Mexico.

“We have almost no drugs coming into our country by the sea, by the waterways, and you know why?” he said. “It’s pretty obvious. Would I do that on the land cars? I would, absolutely.”

The targeted attacks on go-fast boats have come under scrutiny from some Democratic lawmakers, and on June 18, the Senate Armed Services Committee threatened to freeze War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel funds unless the Pentagon released “unedited video” of all the boat strikes.

In December 2025, Hegseth said he would not release “a top secret, full, unedited video … to the general public,” regarding a U.S. military strike a few months before that allegedly killed two survivors of an initial attack on a boat carrying cocaine in the Caribbean.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.