U.S. kills 2 in strike on alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific, military says
The U.S. military said it launched another strike Monday on a vessel allegedly carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific, killing two people.
U.S. Southern Command claimed in a post on X that the vessel was "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters." The military didn't say which organization, but the Trump administration has categorized several Latin American drug cartels as terror groups.
"Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Two male narco-terrorists were killed," Southern Command said.
The U.S. military has hit at least 30 alleged drug vessels in the region since early September, killing 107 people — part of a monthslong campaign of boat strikes near Latin America. President Trump has argued that boat strikes have been effective at quelling drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, but critics have questioned the president's legal authority to carry out the strikes.
Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump said the United States "knocked out" a "big facility" last week linked to alleged drug boat operations.
"There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs," Mr. Trump said when speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The president also said it had struck what he called "the implementation area," adding, "that is no longer around."
Mr. Trump had said Friday in a radio interview that the U.S. hit the facility "very hard" two nights before. The president didn't offer the location of the facility, but he has repeatedly floated land strikes on alleged drug traffickers in Venezuela and other countries. The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela. CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of drug trafficking and working with gangs designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations, which Maduro denies.
The U.S. has built up a heightened military presence in the region over the last few months, and Mr. Trump has also said he is instituting a "blockade" of all sanctioned oil vessels entering or exiting Venezuela, impacting a key economic sector for the South American country. The U.S. recently seized two sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela's coast.
The military began conducting boat strikes on Sept. 2, which the administration has justified by arguing the U.S. is in a "non-international armed conflict" with cartels.
The strikes have drawn pushback from congressional Democrats and a handful of Republicans who argue the operations haven't been authorized by Congress and the administration hasn't provided sufficient evidence that the vessels were carrying drugs. The Colombian and Venezuelan governments have also criticized the strikes.
