War on Drugs

Trump's Boat Strikes Killed 221 People, but Didn't Win the War on Drugs

Operation Southern Spear has struck 67 small fishing boats without denting the fentanyl or cocaine supply.

Tosin Akintola | 7.30.2026 9:11 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Donald Trump/Truth Social)

Last September, the U.S. military fired the first of 63 strikes against 67 small fishing boats in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean. The spate of killings in Operation Southern Spear has claimed 221 lives so far, according to the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization.

In April, President Donald Trump boasted about the effectiveness of his extrajudicial maritime strikes against alleged drug traffickers, claiming his methods had stopped 98.2 percent of all drugs coming into the country by ocean or sea.

However, new evidence from those inside the Trump administration shows the strikes have not slowed the flow of drugs coming into the country. Instead, they've forced drug traffickers to "develop new strategies and tactics," while "undermining traditional investigative methods" used by federal law enforcement, according to The Washington Post.

The president has repeatedly cited the opioid crisis and the rise in fentanyl use as the impetus for his escalation to maritime strikes. Yet most fentanyl is........

© Reason.com