US Military Expands Anti-Drug Operations to Ecuador, Strikes Three More Boats

The US military began conducting operations with Ecuador targeting "designated terrorist organizations" in the Latin American country, the Pentagon announced Tuesday, marking a new front in the Trump administration's efforts to curtail drug trafficking. The announcement appears to mark an expansion of the Trump administration's Operation Southern Spear, which has so far killed 151 people in strikes on alleged drug boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean.

US Southern Command announced that the military launched strikes on three alleged drug smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean on Monday, killing 11 people. "Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command said Tuesday in a post to X. The post alleged the three boats were "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations" and referred to those killed as "male narco-terrorists," saying that eight people were killed on two boats in the eastern Pacific and three were killed on a boat in the Caribbean. No US troops were harmed, the post said.

The military has not provided evidence that the boats or people onboard were involved in drug trafficking or proof of the number killed. The strikes were conducted at the direction of Marine Corps Gen. Francis Donovan, who serves as the commander of US Southern Command.

The Pentagon did not specify what the new operations in Ecuador would entail or which groups they would focus on. A short video posted to social media by US SOUTHCOM showed individuals boarding a helicopter. Ecuador's Ministry of Defense said on social media Tuesday that a "new phase against narco-terrorism and illegal mining" had begun. "The Ecuadorian Armed Forces will continue to firmly combat organized crime alongside strategic allies, for the security of Ecuadorians and the peaceful future of our families," the ministry wrote on X.

Los Lobos and Los Choneros, two of Ecuador's main criminal organizations, were designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the US State Department last September.

The announcements come one day after Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa met with Donovan and other defense officials from both countries at the Government Palace in Quito to coordinate actions against transnational organized crime and strengthen hemispheric security. According to the Ecuadorian presidency, the meeting addressed initiatives to strengthen controls, information sharing, and operational coordination at airports and ports.

The US has launched more than 40 strikes that have killed more than 130 people, according to official estimates provided by the Defense Department. President Donald Trump has said the US is in "armed conflict" with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. The Trump administration has claimed the strikes are needed to stop the trafficking of drugs that are killing Americans.

Critics have questioned the overall legality of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the US over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India. Critics of the strikes have painted the administration's actions as lawless and irresponsible, criticism that reached a crescendo after reports that the military struck one of the boats twice, ultimately killing two survivors.

Noboa's administration has maintained a close relationship with Washington focused on security, through cooperation agreements and US interest in establishing a military base in Ecuador – a proposal that was rejected in a referendum last November.