Video: U.S. Military Strikes Drug-Trafficking Vessel In Caribbean Sea, Killing 3

The U.S. military said it attacked a vessel in the Caribbean Sea on September 9, killing three people it called “narco-terrorists.”

US SOUTHCOM said it had “confirmed intelligence” that the vessel was actively involved in drug-trafficking but gave no further details or evidence.

The attack was the 69th publicly acknowledged strike in the Trump administration’s yearlong military campaign against vessels it says are involved in drug trafficking.

At least 230 people have been killed in the campaign.

It was the first strike this month and the third since the attacks resumed in August after a two-month break that began in late June.

SOUTHCOM also released a 10-second video of the strike. It showed a canopied boat appearing to be stationary on the water before it burst into smoke and flames.

On September 9, under the direction of #SOUTHCOM, Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere executed a lethal kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean. Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in… pic.twitter.com/B9Ec4bCepT

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) September 10, 2026

President Donald Trump’s administration has said the vessels struck by the U.S. military since September 2025 were carrying narcotics.

The strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have killed more than 220 people, according to information released about the campaign.

Some of those killed are believed to have been civilians.

Legal experts and human rights groups in the United States and other countries have questioned whether the strikes are legal.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and independent United Nations experts have called them unlawful extrajudicial killings.

The American Civil Liberties Union has described the Trump administration’s claims against those it targets as “unsubstantiated, fear-mongering claims.”

Before the two-month break, the Trump administration had used counterterrorism language to describe some of the operations and said vessels were being operated by designated terrorist organisations.

The Trump administration has designated 21 Latin American drug cartels and gangs since February.

On Sept. 9, the same day as the latest strike, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Ecuadorian gang Los Tiguerones as both a foreign terrorist organisation and a specially designated global terrorist.

References: Reuters, US SOUTHCOM