Three dead after U.S. military launches strike on alleged drug boat

(NBC, KYMA) - The U.S. military has killed three more suspected drug smugglers in the Eastern Pacific.

The U.S. Southern Command posted video showing the lethal strike on a fast moving boat suspected of transporting illegal drugs Thursday.

According to an NBC News tracker, this was the 65th strike on what the Trump Administration calls "narcoterrorists" since September 2, 2025. In those strikes, 211 people have now died.

As with most of the military's statements on the boat strikes, officials said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.

The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. "is in armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America, and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, and resulting fatal overdoses.

Critics have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.