U.S. Military Strikes Destroy Over 60 Alleged Drug Boats Since Sept. 2025, Killing More Than 200 as Overdose Deaths Decline and Maduro Is Captured

U.S. military strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats have killed more than 200 people since the Trump administration began the operation in September 2025. The strikes started off Venezuela's Caribbean coast and expanded to the Eastern Pacific in October.

October was the deadliest month, with 45 people killed. Most strikes this year have occurred in the Pacific. More than 60 boats have been struck in the monthslong campaign. U.S. Military forces in Latin America in generations. That pressure campaign ended with the January 2026 capture of Venezuela's then-President Nicolás Maduro.

The Associated Press visited a Venezuelan region from which some of the boats departed and identified four men killed in the strikes.

Residents and relatives said the men were mostly laborers or fishermen paid $500 per trip. President Donald Trump has claimed the strikes have destroyed boats carrying fentanyl and that each vessel destroyed has saved 25,000 American lives. U.S. Practice of interdicting boats at sea has not worked.

Trump and other senior officials have stated the boats are operated by narco-terrorists and cartel members. U.S. Coast Guard set a record for cocaine seizures in 2024, hauling 225 metric tons during former President Joe Biden's final year in office.

Federal data show opioid overdose deaths reached about 80,000 a year during 2021-2023, then fell to an estimated 55,000 in 2024 and 44,000 in 2025. Cocaine overdose deaths totaled about 22,000 in 2024, down from more than 29,000 in 2023 and an estimated 19,000 in 2025. The military killed survivors of the first boat attack with a follow-up strike.