{"id":145148,"date":"2026-02-17T16:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/queonnda.com\/u-s-kills-11-suspects-after-destroying-three-more-suspected-narco-boats\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T02:33:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:33:47","slug":"us-destroys-three-narco-boats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queonnda.com\/en\/us-destroys-three-narco-boats\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. kills 11 suspects after destroying three more suspected narco-boats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Armed Forces announced on Tuesday, February 17, that they have destroyed three more narco-boats linked to drug trafficking in the Pacific and the Caribbean, in an operation that has left a total of 11 dead.<\/p>\n<p>The three attacks took place within the framework of Operation Southern Lance, which the US has been implementing since last September in the area of responsibility of the Southern Command (Central America, South America and the Caribbean) and which was activated with the primary objective of increasing the tension surrounding Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who was captured in an operation in Caracas by US forces on January 3.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>US destroys three narco-boats<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Late on Feb. 16, at the direction of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SOUTHCOM?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SOUTHCOM<\/a> commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted three lethal kinetic strikes on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mib9XtptSB\">pic.twitter.com\/mib9XtptSB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Southcom\/status\/2023791027383890240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n&#8220;Late on Feb. 16, under the direction of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Southcom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Southern Command<\/a> Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Force Southern Lance conducted three lethal kinetic strikes against three vessels operated by designated terrorist organizations,&#8221; SOUTHCOM said in a statement released today.<\/p>\n<p>According to the text, Washington confirmed that the vessels &#8220;transited known drug trafficking routes and were involved in drug trafficking operations&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eleven male narcoterrorists were killed during these actions: four on the first vessel in the eastern Pacific, four on the second vessel in the eastern Pacific and three on the third vessel in the Caribbean,&#8221; the statement concluded.<\/p>\n<p>These three attacks come after another U.S. Armed Forces bombing last Friday destroyed another boat and killed its three crew members.<\/p>\n<p>Since September, these summary attacks against suspected drug traffickers have now exceeded 40 and have left around 150 people dead.<\/p>\n<p>In the face of criticism from those who believe that Washington is not granting these individuals due process, the Donald Trump administration has argued that its actions are justified because the administration has declared <a href=\"https:\/\/queonnda.com\/en\/the-war-against-latin-cartels-begins-us-deploys-forces-at-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">war on<\/a> several cartels and organizations linked to drug trafficking in Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>Filed under: US destroys three narco-boats<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>With information from EFE<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Armed Forces announced on Tuesday, February 17, that they have destroyed three more narco-boats linked to drug trafficking in the Pacific and the Caribbean, in an operation that has left a total of 11 dead. The three attacks took place within the framework of Operation Southern Lance, which the US has been implementing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":145147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,125],"tags":[511],"class_list":{"0":"post-145148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"category-news","9":"tag-drug-trafficking"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US destroys three narco-boats in Operation Southern Lance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"U.S. Southern Command operation destroys three narco-boats, 11 killed in international waters of Pacific and Caribe seas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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