On Saturday, the United States armed forces took out another suspected drug-smuggling boat, this one in the eastern Pacific. Three alleged drug smugglers were on board, raising the number of suspected drug smugglers now inspecting new quarters in Davey Jones’ locker to 82. This was the latest event in what the Department of War is calling Operation Southern Spear.
U.S. forces carried out a lethal strike Saturday on a narcotics vessel operated by a designated terrorist organization in the Eastern Pacific, killing three suspected narco-terrorists in international waters, according to U.S. Southern Command.
The strike brings the total number of suspected narco-terrorists killed to 82, with three survivors, in an ongoing U.S. campaign targeting drug-smuggling vessels tied to designated terrorist groups.
In a post on X, U.S. Southern Command said intelligence confirmed the vessel hit in Thursday’s strike was smuggling narcotics along a known trafficking route. The command described the strike as a “lethal kinetic operation” conducted in international waters as part of a broader effort to disrupt transnational criminal networks.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced the official launch of Operation Southern Spear, a new mission targeting narco-terror networks across Latin America.
Now there’s a masterpiece of military understatement, in describing the strike as a “lethal kinetic operation,” when most would have simply said, “blown up.”
The Navy’s Southern Command counted coup on their official X channel, with newly-declassified video:
On Nov. 15, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling,… pic.twitter.com/iM1PhIsroj
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) November 16, 2025
The post continues:
Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed. The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific and was struck in international waters.
In the video, before the boat was detonated, one can plainly make out that the craft was loaded with some kind of bulk cargo. While it’s impossible to know from the video provided, it’s not unlike what baled cocaine or containers of some other illicit drug would look like.
Removing drug smugglers from the game board is always worth doing.
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The operation began last September and has been targeting known smuggling routes and methods, many of them originating from Venezuela and being carried out by members of the notorious Tren de Aragua prison gang.
Since early September, strikes across the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean have destroyed dozens of vessels, many tied to Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang and Colombia’s Ejército de Liberación Nacional.
The campaign began Sept. 2 with a strike that killed 11 alleged members of Tren de Aragua and continued through October and November with a series of targeted operations that eliminated dozens more across known trafficking routes.
In these operations, the United States Navy is once more proving that old military truism: There is no problem that cannot be solved by a suitable application of high explosives.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s military.
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