US military strikes on Pacific drug routes continue daily

By Brett Rowland | center square

(meaningful news) – The recent surge of U.S. military action against suspected drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific has underlined President Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-drug strategy, with five deadly attacks since April 11, bringing the total number of ships destroyed to 53.

The operation marks a change from previous intervention strategies, in which the Trump administration has used military force against suspected smugglers. While officials cite the destruction of the ships and the arrests as signs of success, some lawmakers, rights groups and legal experts have questioned the use of lethal force and the legal justification for these attacks.

After a lull in activity since March 25, U.S. Southern Command provided details about five strikes in the eastern Pacific since April 11. On 11 April, Joint Task Force Southern Spear attacked two ships, killing five. The command notified the US Coast Guard to activate survivor search and rescue systems. Over the next three days, three more attacks were ordered, resulting in nine additional deaths.

Military officials said the boats targeted were traveling along established drug trafficking routes and participating in anti-narcotics operations. However, they did not provide information on whether the strikes were resulting in a halt to smuggling, or whether there was a significant decline in smuggling activity. Trump said last year that military strikes had stopped almost all smuggling activities.

By Thursday, Joint Task Force Southern Spear had destroyed 53 ships in 52 attacks: 50 go-fast boats, two low-profile ships and one semi-submarine. Officials said that 178 people have died in these operations. Search and rescue efforts were suspended in 12 cases. According to a War Department official, two men were found dead, one was rescued and returned to Costa Rica, and two wounded were repatriated.

The official said the total operating cost will be determined after it is finished. Pentagon and Southern Command officials did not respond to questions about estimates of drugs destroyed, smuggling traffic, or preliminary cost estimates.

Since the attacks began, authorities have not released a public estimate of the amount of drugs seized or destroyed during Operation Southern Spear. In one case, authorities in the Dominican Republic reported seizing approximately 2,200 pounds of suspected cocaine following a US airstrike in September 2025. If each attack resulted in the same amount of seizures, the total could exceed £100,000, although this figure is unconfirmed.

Ellen McCusker, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, raised questions about the program’s effectiveness.

“Examining the costs of operations – economically, and in light of the required trade-offs – may be useful in measuring their effectiveness and true strategic value,” he said in a December 2025 analysis, estimating the cost of the operation at $1 billion. “Even a conservative estimate … indicates that we may be wrong about what it takes to achieve measurable and meaningful reductions in the availability of illicit drugs to Americans.”

Trump has often said that each attack saves 25,000 American lives, although he has provided no evidence to support that number. Although drug overdose deaths have declined in the United States, they still remain a significant public health issue. Provisional CDC data shows about 87,000 overdose deaths from October 2023 to September 2024, down from about 114,000 the previous year.

Center Square also contacted the Drug Enforcement Administration asking how the foreign attacks are affecting illicit supply inside the U.S. A spokesperson said the agency was not immediately able to respond Thursday.

The US Coast Guard reported a record-setting drug interdiction in the eastern Pacific in 2025, including 511,000 pounds of cocaine worth more than $3.8 billion, according to an agency report.

While the US has traditionally deterred, detained and arrested smugglers and accounted for the volume of illicit trafficking, Trump has taken a more aggressive stance toward suspected drug traffickers in the region. In September 2025, Trump ordered military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. These attacks are in addition to counter-narcotics efforts by the DEA, FBI, Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard.

The president’s anti-drug efforts go beyond strikes and interdictions. In early 2025, Trump, a second-term Republican, also designated Tren de Aragua and the Mexican Cartel as terrorist organizations. Last year, Trump declared illegal fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.

Democrats, at least one Republican, and several international organizations have criticized the US military strikes. The Republican-controlled Congress rejected a measure that would have required Trump to secure congressional authorization before launching such attacks. Groups like Amnesty International USA say the US is killing people at sea without trial. The Trump administration says it is using the strikes to kill suspected drug terrorists smuggling drugs into the US.

The President has said he could use the military to stop drug trafficking in other parts of the world, including along the US-Mexico border, but no such action has been taken yet.

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