US Southern Command, 23 January 2026

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has announced that, at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, military forces under Joint Task Force-Southern Spear (JTF-SS) carried out a strike earlier today, January 23, against an apparent narco-trafficking vessel in the Eastern… pic.twitter.com/0wVSofRoaN

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 24, 2026

… Pacific operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO). According to SOUTHCOM, intelligence indicated that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route and participating in cartel operations, with two male narco-terrorists killed in the strike, while a third survived and is currently being searched for by the U.S. Coast Guard.