Nov 16 (Reuters) – The United States carried out another attack on a suspected drug trafficking ship in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people on board, the Pentagon said on Sunday.

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting a known drug trafficking route and transporting narcotics,” the US Southern Command announced in a social media post. The announcement said the ship was in international waters when it was struck by Joint Task Force Southern Spear.

It was the 21st known attack on drug ships by the U.S. military since early September in what it has called a justified effort to disrupt the flow of narcotics into the United States. The attacks have killed more than 80 people, according to Pentagon figures.

A Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft flies alongside a US Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bomber in the US Southern Command area of ​​responsibility in October 2025.
A Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft flies alongside a US Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bomber in the US Southern Command area of ​​responsibility in October 2025.

US Air Force via AP

Lawmakers in the US Congress, human rights groups and US allies have raised questions about the legality of the attacks. The Trump administration has said it has the legal authority to carry out the attacks, and the Justice Department provided a legal opinion justifying them and arguing that U.S. military personnel carrying out the operations are immune from prosecution.

Also on Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department would designate an alleged drug trafficking organization, the Cartel of the Suns, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” making it a crime for anyone in the United States to provide material support to the group. U.S. officials have accused the Suns Cartel of working with the Tren de Aragua criminal organization to ship narcotics to the United States.

The Trump administration has said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro leads the Los Soles Cartel, which he denies. The Pentagon has deployed warships, fighter jets and a nuclear submarine to the Caribbean as U.S. officials consider military action against Maduro’s government. (Reporting by Joseph Tanfani; Editing by Sergio Non, Edmund Klamann and Leslie Adler)