US forces have sunk a floating fuel vessel in the Eastern Pacific that was supplying boats used for drug trafficking by the Los Choneros criminal organisation, US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has said. The operation was carried out by Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere as part of a wider Trump administration campaign to disrupt maritime drug-smuggling networks bound for the United States, and comes amid heightened scrutiny of Ecuador's leading criminal gang following its designation as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Personnel aboard the refuelling vessel were removed before it was sunk and will be handed over to Ecuadorian authorities. The task force was stood up by SOUTHCOM in August to bolster regional security, and US forces have since carried out dozens of strikes against suspected smuggling boats. The State Department last week labelled Los Choneros a foreign terrorist organisation, citing violence against officials, judges and journalists in Ecuador, while in July the group's leader, Fito Macías, became the first Ecuadorian citizen extradited to face charges in the US.