A vessel on fire after a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug vessel in the Eastern Pacific, in an unidentified location, in a screen grab from a video released on Feb. 5, 2026. U.S. Southern Command
The U.S. military said on Feb. 5 that it killed two people in a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking vessel in the Eastern Pacific, the latest in a series of actions under an ongoing campaign to disrupt organized criminal networks the Trump administration has branded as “narco-terrorists.”
The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) said in a statement on X that intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narcotics-trafficking routes and “was engaged in narco-trafficking operations” when it was hit with a “lethal kinetic strike.”
