Trump’s War on Drug Boats Raises Legal and Moral Questions
Article Summary: Since September, Trump’s military has carried out drone strikes on at least 14 suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing 60 people. The administration claims success—but offers no data, no proof, and no transparency. Critics warn the campaign is an unlawful spectacle with little impact on America’s drug crisis.
So, have the attacks on drug boats in the Caribbean stopped the smuggling of drugs into the US?
Since September, Donald Trump and Defense/War Secretary Pete Hegseth have ordered controversial military strikes against at least 14 suspected, small drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing 60 people on board. With no public show of evidence and amid much criticism, they have insisted to much chagrin and argument that the actions in international waters are legal – and effective.
They have ordered a military buildup off Venezuela, including an aircraft carrier group, that seem to fit more with undisclosed, but hinted plans to carry the undeclared war on cartels onto land. Maybe they intend to seek to oust Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, whom they label a narco-terrorist. But then they also criticize the Colombian president who says he already was at work with US officials on drug eradication.
Whatever Trump has in mind, he’s not sharing it even with designated bipartisan members of Congress, and what has been shared has drawn comments that the administration shares almost nothing of substance.
Destruction of Drugs – and Smugglers
Because they involved drone strikes that sank the boats, most of the drugs presumably went to the ocean floor, though Dominican officials said they found some floating drugs that might have come from one of the small boat attacks.
But has it blunted drug smuggling? Are we hearing that smuggled fentanyl, the announced target, or even cocaine, which appears to be more common on the bombed boat routes, is less available in the US? Are the cartels hurting?
The Drug Enforcement Administration website flashes a drug seizures scorecard – 34.5 million fentanyl pills, 100,000 pounds of methamphetamine, 300,000 pounds of cocaine till the beginning of October, but not whether this is related to the boats or the border or other operations A Homeland Security news release on its site praises the Coast Guard for seizing 100,000 pounds of cocaine – not sinking boats and killing crews. Of course, the numbers sound large until you consider what the drug universe must be in tonnage.
It’s not even clear if the occasional surviving smuggler is being picked up. Mexico was alerted to one case this week, but could never find the person.
Trump says the border is closed, though the Border and Customs posts data only through 2021. Hegseth’s speeches only reflect the belligerence of the attacks, not any information, however unquestioned, or about stopping measurable drug amounts. The Justice Department National Drug Threats Assessment says there are no widespread cocaine shortages in the US, and a shift in cocaine use to Europe and Asia. There is a surge in demand for synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
How About Some Data?
Even if you want to accept everything our government reports about the boat attacks, the Trump administration’s lack of information about the type or quantity of drugs it says were on the boats makes it impossible to know if the program is effective, whether intercepted drugs are lethal or whether they even were on route to this country.
Though Trump pinpointed fentanyl as the major drug target, a zillion studies and law enforcement data show that fentanyl arrives in pill form over land from Mexican producers dependent on Chinese ingredients. It’s cars and trucks carrying pills through US ports, not boats on uncharted sea routes.
The small, fast drug boats being sunk rather than stopped are believed to be carrying cocaine, but the routes off Venezuela are not usually to the US mainland.
War on the Rocks, which features articles on defense and foreign affairs, says the renewed war on drugs is more spectacle than effective. “Criminals find ways to adapt to interdiction methods. In reality, the strikes do little to reduce the flow of cocaine or fentanyl into the United States,” a featured article says. “Attacking go-fast drug boats is not a strategy, it is spectacle.”
Indeed, Hegseth this week compared the US death count from drugs to the deaths from drugs as justification. He could as easily have compared the counts from gun violence or car crashes, without drone attacks on the nearest Remington factory or gun show.
It has been more than a curiosity that Trump has proposed nothing about halting US demand for fentanyl or cocaine. In fact, his budgets have cut money for substance abuse programs and undercut any efforts at the Centers for Disease Control to even make sense of what drugs are causing problems. Any efforts at curtailing prescription drug overuse are coming from medical groups, hospitals and court lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, not from government war-on-drugs programming.
Promoting Toughness
Trump and Hegseth seem to care only about the law enforcement, “tough-guy” image. Coast Guard interdictions apparently are not tough enough. They may stop drugs and lead to conviction and imprisonment, but Trump wants an image that just stops the smuggling attempts from being undertaken at all.
It’s the same logic and justification for putting ICE and National Guardsmen into the streets of Chicago and Los Angeles as a signal to stop migration altogether.
Trump is taking on an unpopular bully – the drug cartels – because he can.
Who knows, if, as Politico argues, Trump’s military build-up has charred bodies churning up, adversely affecting tourism, fishing and business in Venezuela, it may encourage Venezuelans against their government.
Of course, Venezuelan and Colombian leaders refute Trump’s justification for the boat attacks, and even on Capitol Hill, there is bipartisan criticism about the legality of the strikes as well as any undeclared war without approval of Congress.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, quotes 2024 report that says the Coast Guard did not find drugs on about a quarter of the boats it stopped.
What seems missing is acknowledgement of the huge amount of profits involved in drug smuggling, so much money that even losing tons of cocaine in sporadic boat attacks in open waters is not a serious disincentive to continue. If huge profit still looms, the cartels will figure out ways around the policing.
Trump seems to believe that all he needs to do is point, sink and kill without explanation, without accountability, without even a measure of whether his program works.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS NEEDS YOU. OUR NONPROFIT EFFORTS TO PROTECT IT NEED YOU.
