U.S. Widens Boat-Strike Campaign To Pacific

 

“The U.S. said Wednesday it had struck a suspected drug boat on the Pacific side of South America, signaling a widening of its campaign against alleged drug trafficking and transnational crime.

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a video of the strike on X and said it took place Tuesday in the eastern Pacific Ocean and killed two people on board the boat, without providing more details about the location.

 

"The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics," Hegseth said.

 

The attack on what is known as a go-fast boat is the eighth reported U.S. strike on an alleged drug vessel and brings the announced death toll from the campaign to 34. The seven previous U.S. strikes were carried out in the Caribbean. Two survivors from a strike last week were repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador, respectively.

 

Tuesday's strike is the first time the U.S. has hit a boat in the Pacific, where cocaine from Colombia and Ecuador makes its way north on go-fast boats, submersibles, container vessels and fishing trawlers. Tensions have been running high between President Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Trump has said the drug trade is out of control in Colombia, while Petro has said his U.S. counterpart is committing atrocities by ordering strikes on boats.

 

Members of Congress are pressing for details about the legal basis for the campaign against the boats, with some lawmakers on Capitol Hill and human-rights groups alleging the U.S. is committing extrajudicial killings.

 

Based on seizures, the Colombian navy's research said that go-fast boats -- long, narrow fiberglass vessels with three or four outboard motors -- are the most widely used means of transporting cocaine by sea in the Pacific.

 

Its research arm said the Pacific is a main exit route for cocaine produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The amount of cocaine seized after leaving Ecuador has risen from 33 tons in 2020 to 158 tons in 2024. The cocaine doesn't just go to the U.S. but west toward Asia and Australia and, via a circuitous route, to Europe.” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: U.S. Widens Boat-Strike Campaign To Pacific. Holliday, Shelby; Forero, Juan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 Oct 2025: A3.