Multiple alleged drug traffickers jumped overboard and into the ocean after a Department of War strike on a suspected drug vessel convoy on Tuesday, the first of two strikes announced hours before the new year.
U.S. Southern Command announced Wednesday a total of five strikes, three against “narco-trafficking vessels” that were traveling together on Dec. 30 and two against separate vessels on Dec. 31, all in international waters along known drug routes, according to SOUTHCOM. It also said War Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strikes.
Three people were killed in the strike on the convoy Tuesday, and five were killed on the two vessels in Wednesday’s strike, SOUTHCOM said.
“On Dec. 30, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted kinetic strikes against three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy,” SOUTHCOM wrote on X of the Dec. 30 strikes.
“These vessels were operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and had transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes,” it added.
The alleged drug traffickers fled their vessels after the first strike, creating distance between themselves and their doomed boats. Coast Guard search and rescue were activated after the strikes.
“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” SOUTHCOM concluded of Tuesday’s strike.
It said of Wednesday’s, “A total of five narco-terrorists were killed during these actions — three in the first vessel and two in the second.”
The Coast Guard said it was activated because it was notified of “mariners in distress in the Pacific Ocean.”
“The U.S. Coast Guard is coordinating search-and-rescue operations with vessels in the area, and a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft is en route to provide further search coverage with the ability to drop a survival raft and supplies,” a statement from the Coast Guard said.
U.S. officials told CBS News that as many as eight people abandoned the vessels. Their statuses are unclear.
NDAA REQUIRE HEGSETH TO SUBMIT ‘UNEDITED VIDEO’ OF BOAT STRIKES OR FACE TRAVEL BUDGET CUTS
The strike is the latest of dozens already conducted against alleged drug traffickers in international waters, with the total number killed surpassing 100.
The Trump administration has escalated its actions against drug traffickers to turn up the heat on President Nicolas Maduro’s government in Venezuela, with the U.S. having recently “knocked out” a “big facility” last week linked to alleged drug boat operations, Trump said.
