U.S. Strikes on Suspected Drug Boats: The Toll and the Timeline
The U.S. military's first strike on a vessel that the Department of War said was operated by a Venezuelan cartel took place on September 2, 2025, according to a Department of War document published in March 2026. A cartel is a criminal organisation that smuggles drugs on a large scale.
Since then, the strikes have become a steady feature of U.S. operations in the region. The Trump administration has acknowledged 10 strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats from South America, which killed 43 people, according to the New York Times. Individual strikes have varied widely in their reported death tolls.
In September 2025, President Donald Trump said that a U.S. military strike on a boat from Venezuela had killed 11 people, according to Reuters. Later that year, Trump said a strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela had killed six suspected drug traffickers, according to Reuters. The White House confirmed that a senior U.S. Navy admiral ordered a second round of strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat, according to the BBC.
The strikes took place against a wider backdrop of tension with Venezuela. In early January, the U.S. captured then-President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Venezuela's National Assembly, the country's legislature, planned to investigate the U.S. boat strikes, according to Reuters.
Some strikes have hit targets on land. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels, according to PBS NewsHour. Separately, a U.S. strike targeted a remote dock that was believed to have been used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and load them onto boats, according to Reuters.
The most recent strike killed two people. An NBC News report said the administration described them as "narco-terrorists," a label used for people accused of combining drug trafficking with terrorism.
