U.S. military forces sank a vessel this Thursday that was serving as a floating fuel supply station for drug trafficking operations in international waters of the Eastern Pacific, in a coordinated action with the Government of Ecuador against the narcoterrorist organization Los Choneros.
The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) reported that the operation was led by General Francis L. Donovan and carried out by the 24th Surface Warfare Combat Team, deployed from the USS San Antonio (LPD 17), which boarded, inspected, and evacuated the vessel without incident before proceeding to sink it.
The official information details that the ship operated as a floating fuel supply station in support of illicit drug trafficking operations in the international waters of the Eastern Pacific.
U.S. intelligence confirmed that the vessel was directly operating in support of Los Choneros, a group classified by Washington as a "violent narcoterrorist organization."
The individuals found on board were removed from the vessel and will be handed over to the Ecuadorian authorities, according to SOUTHCOM.
This is the second operation of this kind in less than a week: on August 28, the JTF-WHEM had already sunk another similar narco vessel in the same theater of operations, also linked to Los Choneros and also launched from the USS San Antonio.
"The Department of Defense and A3C remain steadfast in their mission to defeat narcoterrorists in the Western Hemisphere and defend our homeland," SOUTHCOM concluded in its statement.
SOUTHCOM described the action as a strike against "a critical node in the narcotraffickers' logistics chain," within the framework of the American Coalition Against the Cartels (A3C) and the Joint Task Force of the Western Hemisphere (JTF-WHEM).
The JTF-WHEM was activated on August 3, 2026 as the operational arm of the A3C to dismantle narcoterrorist networks in the Western Hemisphere, under the command of Major General Kevin Jarrard of the Marines.
The Choneros emerged in the late 1990s in Chone, Manabí province, and became one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Ecuador, with links to the Sinaloa Cartel and operations trafficking cocaine to Mexico, the U.S., and Europe.
His leader, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as "Fito," was captured in Ecuador in June 2025 and extradited to the U.S. on July 20 of that year, where he faces seven federal charges in New York for drug trafficking and arms trafficking.
Despite the capture of its leader, the organization has kept its maritime logistical networks active, as evidenced by the successive interdictions in August and September of 2026.
The Department of State formally designated Los Choneros as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) and a specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) on September 4, 2025, exactly one year before this new operation.
The accumulated balance of SOUTHCOM's anti-drug campaign after one year reports at least 227 dead, 68 vessels destroyed, and a nearly 50% reduction in drug trafficking across the Pacific.
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