US forces killed three suspected drug traffickers in a strike on a vessel in the Eastern Pacific on 9 September, the latest in an escalating American military campaign against alleged cartel smuggling operations in Latin America. The strike was carried out by Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere under US Southern Command, with officials citing "confirmed intelligence" of the vessel's involvement in narco-trafficking; the Trump administration has framed the campaign as an "armed conflict" with cartels aimed at stopping drugs reaching American communities.

The operation forms part of Operation Southern Spear, which the Pentagon says has carried out 67 strikes since it began on 2 September 2025. It follows a string of recent attacks, including one on 25 August that killed four people in the Caribbean and another in the Eastern Pacific days earlier that killed two, the first such strike in over two months. Officials, including Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson and Gen. Francis L. Donovan, say the campaign has disrupted trafficking networks and forced smugglers to change tactics, while the administration is also pursuing agreements with allied nations that could extend operations onto land in several Latin American countries.