Despite killing 200 people in attacks on suspected drug boats, US has done little to slow drug trade, experts say | The Independent Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent<br>Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.<br>Not nowYes please

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Despite killing 200 people in attacks on suspected drug boats, US has done little to slow drug trade, experts say<br>Dozens of attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats do not appear to have made a dent in cocaine availability in the US, researchers say

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US strikes on 'drug boats' killed 23 people in April

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Donald Trump’s administration has launched dozens of airstrikes that have killed nearly 200 people in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, a campaign that military officials have described as a campaign against “terrorist” groups trafficking drugs into the U.S.<br>But the months-long attacks have reportedly done little to combat the flow of illicit drugs into the country, raising questions about the effectiveness of an operation that law of war experts say amounts to extrajudicial killings and war crimes.<br>Cocaine is as easy to get in the U.S. today as it was nine months ago, when the president began launching a series of strikes that have killed at least 195 people, as of May 29, according to researchers speaking to The New York Times.

The cost of the operations has exploded to at least $4.7 billion, according to research from the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. That total includes more than $3.8 million on naval deployments, $616 million on aircraft deployments, $15 million on special operation forces, and tens of millions of dollars spent on munitions, researchers found.<br>And yet cocaine, by far the most-exported drug from South America, “remains highly available, highly prevalent and relatively inexpensive,” Dr. Carl Latkin, a professor of public health at Johns Hopkins University, told the newspaper.

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Nearly 200 people have been killed in dozens of attacks on vessels in the Pacific and Caribbean, an operation the Trump administration says is combatting the flow of illegal drugs in the U.S. (U.S. Southern Command)<br>U.S. military assets are simultaneously intercepting suspected drug boats and recovering contraband, suggesting that the U.S. can deploy law enforcement to stop the flow of drugs into the country without killing everyone on board. Top military officials — including the commander in charge of the campaign — have also told members of Congress that the killings are not the way to stop them.

The Coast Guard seized more than 511,000 pounds of cocaine in 2025, more than three times the annual average, but that amount “pales in comparison” to the amount produced in South America, according to The Times. Drug researchers and the United Nations estimate that annual cocaine production is roughly 5.7 million pounds.

The Trump administration insists that strikes against suspected traffickers are fully within legal bounds, supported by the administration’s notice to Congress that the U.S. is formally engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that the president has labeled “unlawful combatants.”

The administration still has not publicly provided sufficient evidence or legal justification for the attacks, according to members of Congress and civil rights groups who are pushing for answers.<br>Military officials argue that the attacks are disrupting trafficking routes, but analysts have found that smugglers are merely shifting to other trafficking methods, including smuggling cocaine on container ships.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are also intercepting larger quantities of drugs, which researchers say isn’t necessarily a sign that law enforcement agents are stopping the flor of illegal drugs. Those seizures can also be representative of the volume of drugs moving into the U.S<br>“They’re not moving the needle at...