JTF Southern Spear killed three aboard suspected narcotics vessel in eastern Pacific; ~55th strike, ~186 campaign deaths
On April 26, 2026, U.S. Southern Command announced a lethal strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that it described as an alleged drug-trafficking boat, killing three people. SOUTHCOM posted a video of the strike on X and said the boat was transiting "known narco-trafficking routes," but provided no public evidence that it carried narcotics. The attack was the latest in the Trump administration's open-ended boat-strike campaign, which by late April had killed at least 186 people across the eastern Pacific and Caribbean.