The United States Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced that its Joint Task Force for the Western Hemisphere carried out a lethal kinetic strike against a fast boat that was traveling along known drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean Sea, resulting in the deaths of four individuals whom it labeled as "narcoterrorists."
The official statement published on the SOUTHCOM account on X noted that "confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel's active participation in drug trafficking" and that the operation—conducted on October 4—"killed four narco-terrorists."
The message also included an infrared thermal camera video, marked as declassified, showing the vessel moments before the explosion.
SOUTHCOM did not provide details about the weapon or aircraft used, the exact location of the attack, or the identity or nationality of the four deceased, which prevents any independent verification of the facts.
The operation is part of the Southern Spear Operation, the U.S. military campaign launched in September 2025 that authorizes direct lethal attacks against vessels suspected of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, instead of the interceptions and captures that characterized previous anti-drug operations.
According to the report from InSight Crime as of October 4, the campaign has resulted in at least 238 deaths in 79 attacks.
CNN reported at least 221 deaths and 67 destroyed vessels since the start of the operation, which has faced numerous criticisms for alleged Human Rights violations, after relatives of the victims stated that many of them were simply fishermen in the Caribbean.
In the weeks leading up to the attack on Sunday, SOUTHCOM had reported the deaths of four individuals in the Caribbean on September 19, and three fatalities in another similar operation on the 9th of that same month.
The legal basis that Washington invokes is that the cartels designated as foreign terrorist organizations are combatants in an armed conflict, which would allow them to be treated as military targets.
A memorandum from the Department of Justice, reported in August 2026, supports this interpretation and grants the president broad powers to order the attacks.
However, the campaign faces increasing international legal controversy. On September 21, Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the fight against terrorism, concluded that the attacks could constitute crimes against humanity, as they involve extrajudicial executions carried out under a state policy.
"There are reasonable grounds to consider that the deaths constituted the crime against humanity of murder, in accordance with customary international law," stated Saul, who also warned that "drug trafficking, even when it involves groups designated as terrorists, does not in itself equate to an armed attack that would justify the exercise of legitimate defense through military force."
Human Rights Watch recorded 69 allegedly illegal attacks up to September 2, 2026, and classified them as extrajudicial executions.
A recurring criticism from both organizations is that the U.S. does not provide public evidence that the vessels are transporting drugs at the time of the attack, which raises the possibility that among the victims there could be fishermen or others not linked to drug trafficking.
The Trump administration, for its part, maintains that the operations are legitimate and necessary. Between October 2025 and June 2026, SOUTHCOM reported the interception of over 305 metric tons of cocaine and losses exceeding 7.7 billion dollars for the drug trafficking networks.
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