Trump Dismisses Drug Boat Seizures Despite Record Hauls/ Newslooks/ WASHINGTON/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ President Trump says decades of interdicting drug boats have failed, despite the U.S. Coast Guard reporting record cocaine seizures. Under his administration, the military has destroyed 20 suspected drug vessels, resulting in 80 deaths. Critics warn the strategy abandons intelligence gathering and risks human rights violations.
Drug War Policy Clash Quick Looks
- Trump claims interdiction is ineffective and orders military strikes on suspected drug boats.
- U.S. Coast Guard reports a record 225 metric tons of cocaine seized last year.
- Experts warn military strikes endanger intelligence-gathering and may violate international law.
- Trump’s campaign has resulted in 80 deaths and destroyed 20 vessels.
- Critics, including ex-drug war officials, say live captures yield more actionable intelligence.
- Secretary of State Rubio says deterrence through seizures isn’t working.
- Most fentanyl comes via Mexico, not by sea, contradicting Trump’s claims.
- AP investigation finds some killed in strikes were poor fishermen, not cartel operatives.
Deep Look
Trump Criticizes Traditional Drug Interdiction as U.S. Hits Record Cocaine Seizures
MIAMI — Even as the U.S. Coast Guard celebrates a historic year in narcotics enforcement, President Donald Trump is calling the decades-long strategy of intercepting drug smuggling boats a failure. Instead, he’s embracing a more forceful and deadly tactic: military strikes at sea.
“We’ve been doing that for 30 years,” Trump said recently, referring to maritime interdiction. “And it’s been totally ineffective.”
That comment came just as the Coast Guard announced its record seizure of 225 metric tons of cocaine over the past year — a 40% increase over the previous decade’s annual average. The landmark haul includes 38 tons seized by the USCGC Hamilton, the largest cocaine seizure ever by a single cutter.
Still, Trump has remained undeterred in reshaping America’s approach to drug trafficking.
A Shift Toward Military Action
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. military has destroyed 20 suspected drug boats in the Pacific and Caribbean, resulting in at least 80 deaths, as part of an aggressive new campaign. The strategy marks a sharp departure from the traditional focus on capturing traffickers alive to extract intelligence and dismantle cartel networks from the inside.
Top officials argue that these vessels are operated by narco-terrorists and cartel members who pose imminent threats. Trump has even claimed — often inaccurately — that the boats carry fentanyl and that each strike “saves 25,000 American lives.”
But critics, including members of Trump’s own party, human rights advocates, and national security analysts, have sounded alarms over what they describe as extrajudicial killings. Some have warned that this tactic could erode the United States’ global moral standing and legal credibility.
Intelligence Lost at Sea
Veterans of America’s long-running drug war warn that killing suspected traffickers removes critical opportunities for intelligence-gathering. Often, the crews aboard drug boats are low-level operatives — not drug lords — but they carry information about routes, contacts, suppliers, and the ever-evolving smuggling infrastructure.
“Dead men don’t talk,” said Douglas Farah, a national security expert on Latin America and president of IBI Consultants. “The Coast Guard has extraordinary authority to interdict drugs and gather intelligence without resorting to violence.”
He added that the military-led operations are likely more expensive, legally questionable, and less sustainable than traditional enforcement.
Coast Guard’s Record Year
Despite years of underfunding, the U.S. Coast Guard has continued to play a key role in drug interdiction. The service works in coordination with the DEA, U.S. Southern Command, the Department of Justice, and foreign partners through Joint Interagency Task Force–South based in Key West, Florida.
Last month, the cutter Hamilton returned from a two-month patrol with 38 tons of seized cocaine — setting a single-deployment record. Those drugs, and many others captured during Operation Pacific Viper, were confiscated without a single life lost.
In almost every case, suspects were brought to U.S. soil for prosecution, and the operations generated valuable data for tracking cartel movements and supply chains.
Coast Guard officials have said repeatedly that they are only intercepting a fraction of the narcotics entering the U.S. through maritime routes. The “Transit Zone” — covering waters larger than Russia — is difficult to monitor fully with limited resources.
Rubio: “Interdictions Alone Aren’t Enough”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the administration’s pivot, arguing that the long-standing interdiction approach fails to deter traffickers.
“These criminal networks already account for a 5% loss rate,” Rubio said. “They expect it. It doesn’t stop them from continuing.”
Officials also point to the low street prices of cocaine in the U.S. as proof that supply remains high. Cocaine continues to travel primarily from South America, up through Central America, and eventually across the U.S.-Mexico border or toward Europe through Caribbean shipping lanes.
Misleading Fentanyl Claims
Trump has claimed that his strikes destroyed vessels carrying fentanyl — the deadly synthetic opioid driving the overdose crisis. But experts say those statements are largely false or misleading.
Fentanyl is almost exclusively trafficked overland via Mexico, where it is manufactured using chemicals from China and India. In contrast, the boats patrolled by the Coast Guard are mostly smuggling cocaine, not opioids.
In 2023, U.S. opioid deaths peaked at 112,000 but dropped to 74,000 by April 2025, thanks largely to expanded access to overdose-reversal drugs under Biden-era public health programs. Cocaine overdose deaths, though increasing, remain far lower, with just under 20,000 fatalities in the past year.
AP: Fishermen Among the Dead
An investigation by the Associated Press into Venezuela’s coastal region — where many of the struck boats originated — uncovered that several of the deceased were not cartel members. Residents and family members confirmed that four of the men killed were laborers or fishermen paid around $500 per trip to ferry drugs.
“They’re hardly kingpins,” said Kendra McSweeney, a drug policy researcher at Ohio State University. “They’re poor men in desperate situations.”
This raises deeper questions about whether the strikes are targeting legitimate threats — or punishing desperate civilians caught in the middle.
Contradictions Within the Administration
Before the military campaign escalated, the Trump administration had been publicly celebrating the Coast Guard’s successes. In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel welcomed the return of the cutter James, which had just seized 20 tons of cocaine — valued at more than $500 million.
Standing in front of towering stacks of seized drugs, Bondi praised what she called a “prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven” strategy.
“This is not a drop in the bucket,” she said. “This is serious impact. This is real disruption of the cartels.”
But the sudden shift toward missile strikes at sea has cast doubt over which strategy the administration truly believes is most effective.
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