Military operations targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters have resulted in over 200 fatalities since September, when the current administration launched what it describes as a necessary effort to combat drug smuggling.
The ongoing strikes have been accompanied by limited evidence supporting administration claims about eliminating “narco-terrorists,” with U.S. President Donald Trump characterizing the situation as an “armed conflict.”
Legal experts and critics have raised concerns about both the lawfulness and effectiveness of these operations, noting that fentanyl responsible for numerous fatal overdoses typically enters the U.S. through overland routes from Mexico. The targeted vessels operating in Caribbean and eastern Pacific waters are known to transport cocaine rather than fentanyl.
Trump has argued that traditional methods of intercepting vessels at sea over many decades have proven ineffective. However, the U.S. Coast Guard achieved record cocaine seizures in 2024, the last year of former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, confiscating 225 metric tons of the substance.
The military operations commenced in September near Venezuela’s Caribbean coastline and extended to the Eastern Pacific by October. October proved to be the most lethal month of the campaign, with 45 fatalities recorded. Pacific waters have seen the majority of this year’s strikes.
Trump and other high-ranking officials have maintained that these vessels are operated by narco-terrorists and cartel operatives.
The Associated Press conducted investigations in a Venezuelan region where some suspected boats originated and confirmed the identities of four men killed in the operations. Through multiple interviews, local residents and family members described the deceased as primarily laborers or fishermen earning $500 per voyage.
These strikes coincided with the most significant U.S. military presence in Latin America in decades, part of a pressure strategy that led to the January arrest of Venezuela’s then-President Nicolás Maduro.
More than 60 vessels have been targeted during the extended operation.
Trump has asserted that the strikes have destroyed fentanyl-carrying boats and that each eliminated vessel has prevented 25,000 American deaths. Experts and former U.S. counternarcotics officials characterize Trump’s claims as either greatly exaggerated or factually incorrect.
Over the last ten years, U.S. officials have consistently warned about increasing overdose fatalities, especially from opioids and synthetic opioids. Opioid overdose deaths peaked during 2021-2023 at approximately 80,000 annually but decreased to an estimated 55,000 in 2024. Experts credit this reduction partially to Biden administration efforts to increase access to life-saving overdose prevention medications. Federal statistics indicate further decline, with an estimated 44,000 deaths last year.
Conversely, cocaine overdose deaths, primarily from drugs produced in Colombia and Peru, occur less frequently than fentanyl fatalities. Approximately 22,000 Americans died from cocaine overdoses in 2024, declining from over 29,000 the previous year, according to federal data. Cocaine overdose deaths dropped further to an estimated 19,000 in 2025.
South American drug shipments to the U.S. consist primarily of cocaine. Fentanyl typically enters the U.S. through overland Mexican routes, where it’s manufactured using chemicals imported from China and India.
The operation has faced severe criticism, particularly after revelations that military forces killed survivors of the initial boat attack in a subsequent strike. Administration officials and numerous Republican lawmakers defended the actions as legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers and legal scholars characterized the killings as murder or potential war crimes.
Amanda Klasing, national director for government relations at rights watchdog Amnesty International USA, stated last week that the “extrajudicial killings are becoming normalized” as casualties continue mounting.
“Not only are these killings illegal, they are immoral,” she said. “People of good conscience cannot allow this to continue, yet Congress has so far failed to halt, or even slow down, this lethal and unlawful campaign.”
In January, relatives of two Trinidadian nationals killed in an October boat strike filed a federal lawsuit, describing the attack as a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign.” The legal complaint reflects widespread concerns about the boat strikes, highlighting that they lack congressional authorization and occur during peacetime when no military conflict exists between the U.S. and drug cartels that would justify lethal attacks under international law.
“These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification. Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command,” the lawsuit states.
