The US military has executed a deadly strike against a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in two fatalities and leaving one person alive.

Conducted on Monday and authorized by US Southern Command, the operation targeted a boat believed to be associated with narco-trafficking rings that exploit established smuggling routes between South and North America.

US Southern Command announced the incident on X, stating: “On Feb. 9, under the directive of #SOUTHCOM leader Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.”

The military further detailed that “two narco-terrorists were killed and one survived the strike,” and noted that US forces promptly initiated efforts to rescue the individual who survived.

“Following the engagement, USSOUTHCOM immediately alerted the US Coast Guard to launch the Search and Rescue operation for the survivor,” the command reported.

In the wake of the strike, rescue teams were mobilized to find and retrieve the survivor, sparking a coordinated international search across the expansive eastern Pacific waters.

A spokesperson for the US Coast Guard confirmed to CNN that Ecuadorian authorities had taken control of the rescue mission.

‘Maritime Rescue Coordination Center Ecuador has assumed coordination of search and rescue operations,’ the Coast Guard spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the US Coast Guard would provide technical assistance.

US Southern Command said the strike was carried out on February 9 by Joint Task Force Southern Spear in the eastern Pacific Ocean

The military said intelligence had tracked the vessel along routes widely used by drug smugglers, describing it as actively engaged in narcotics trafficking at the time of the strike.

‘Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,’ Southern Command said.

The deadly encounter is the latest chapter in Operation Southern Spear, a controversial military campaign aimed at disrupting drug trafficking across maritime routes.

The Trump administration has defended the aggressive tactics, describing those targeted as ‘unlawful combatants’ and asserting that military force can be used without traditional judicial oversight based on classified legal findings from the Justice Department. 

The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January – a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than a dozen boats in December 2025.

Monday’s strike marks the third publicly reported attack this year and the second to leave a survivor following an attack.

The military said intelligence confirmed the vessel was traveling along known narco-trafficking routes at the time of the strike

Southern Command stated that ‘two narco-terrorists were killed and one survived the strike’

A similar strike in January also killed two individuals while leaving one survivor.

Last week, the military said the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats was up to 128 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. 

That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, US Southern Command said. 

Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.

Despite the administration’s assertions, the strikes have drawn mounting scrutiny from lawmakers, legal experts, and human rights advocates.

Particular controversy surrounds an earlier strike last September, when a follow-up attack killed two crew members who had survived an initial strike. 

Critics have raised concerns about whether sufficient evidence exists to conclusively link those targeted to drug trafficking operations, and whether lethal military force is justified in such circumstances.

CNN reported that the administration has presented limited public evidence connecting those killed in Operation Southern Spear to specific narcotics shipments or criminal organizations.

The legality of the strikes has also been questioned by military lawyers and legal experts.

The strike is part of Operation Southern Spear, a US military campaign targeting suspected narcotics trafficking vessels

Last week, the military said the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats was up to 128 people, including those presumed dead after being lost at sea

Multiple current and former military attorneys said the operations ‘do not appear lawful,’ raising alarms about the precedent set by using military force against suspected smugglers outside traditional war zones.

Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in October sued the federal government earlier this month, calling the attack a war crime and part of an ‘unprecedented and manifestly unlawful US military campaign.’ 

The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.

President Donald Trump has said the US is in ‘armed conflict’ with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. 

But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing ‘narcoterrorists.’