The Joint Task Force 'Southern Spear' carried out a lethal kinetic strike yesterday against a vessel in the Eastern Pacific, resulting in the deaths of two men identified as narco-terrorists, according to a report from U.S. Southern Command on its social media.
The attack was ordered by the SOUTHCOM commander, General Francis L. Donovan, and was carried out after intelligence confirmed that the vessel was traveling along known drug trafficking routes and was actively involved in drug trafficking operations.
The vessel was operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations, according to the official statement. No U.S. military personnel were injured during the action.
The operation is part of the Operación Lanza del Sur (Operation Southern Spear), a military campaign launched in September 2025 by the Trump administration to combat transnational illicit networks through aerial surveillance, naval interdictions, and lethal kinetic attacks in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
This attack is the latest in a sustained series of military strikes. On Saturday, April 19, an attack in the Caribbean killed three narco-terrorists. On April 15, another strike in the Eastern Pacific left three dead, and on April 14, four narco-terrorists were killed in a similar action in the same area.
On April 11, two simultaneous attacks eliminated five narco-terrorists, with one survivor rescued by the Coast Guard.
Until mid-April, Operation Southern Lance had accumulated approximately 53 attacks and more than 178 drug-terrorists eliminated since its inception, with an estimated cost of 3 billion dollars.
The legal basis for the operation is Executive Order 14157, signed by President Trump on January 20, 2025, which mandated the designation of drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
On February 20, 2025, the State Department formalized the designation of eight organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel, CJNG, Gulf Cartel, and Tren de Aragua.
The operation has sparked international controversy for carrying out direct lethal attacks without prior judicial processes, which organizations such as Just Security have classified as alleged extrajudicial crimes.
President Donald Trump stated that the campaign has allowed for the interception of 98.2% of drug shipments by sea heading to the United States, although this figure has not been independently verified.
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