US military strikes drug trafficking boats in Pacific, killing eight
Over the past months, more than 20 vessels have been targeted, resulting in at least 90 deaths.
Legal experts have raised concerns that some of these strikes may violate international law. In particular, a “double-tap” strike on 2 September—where survivors of the first strike were killed in a second—has been described by experts as potentially illegal and constituting extrajudicial killings. A former ICC prosecutor suggested that the broader campaign could amount to a “planned, systematic attack against civilians during peacetime.”
The White House maintains that the operations comply with the laws of armed conflict, aiming to protect the US from drug trafficking networks. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are scheduled to brief Congress, showing footage of the controversial double-tap strike.
The US has increasingly focused on Venezuela, accusing it of facilitating narcotics trafficking and isolating President Nicolás Maduro. Two Venezuelan criminal groups—Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles—have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations. US forces, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, have been deployed near Venezuela. On 10 December, US forces seized an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, alleging it was transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran to support terrorist organizations; Venezuelan officials denounced this as “international piracy.”
As part of this crackdown, the Trump administration has classified fentanyl—the drug linked to the majority of fatal overdoses in the US—as a weapon of mass destruction.
The strikes highlight the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to combating narcotics, while also raising legal and ethical questions over the conduct of US military operations in peacetime.
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