A United Nations special rapporteur has stated that there are reasonable grounds to believe that United States attacks on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Pacific and Caribbean constitute crimes against humanity.
The strikes, carried out since September 2025, have killed more than 230 people, with the latest operation in the Caribbean claiming four lives. The United Nations, along with human rights organisations, lawyers and international law experts, has already described the bombings as extrajudicial killings.
In a briefing note posted on social media, Ben Saul, the rapporteur, added that the attacks were serial extrajudicial killings that violated the right to life and were unjustified under national or personal self‑defence, international humanitarian law, the law of the sea, narcotics suppression conventions or counter‑terrorism law. He cited 68 attacks that killed 223 people, noting that other organisations list 234 deaths in 66 attacks.
The U.S. Southern Command described the most recent strike as a lethal kinetic operation against a vessel on established narco‑trafficking routes, claiming it killed four narco‑terrorists. Saul rejected President Donald Trump’s assertion that the strikes were self‑defence against designated terrorist organisations, arguing that the crews were not militarily armed and had not launched an armed attack on the United States.
The U.S. Department of State has not yet responded to a request for comment. Trump’s claim that the bombings stopped 97 % of illegal drugs entering the U.S. by sea is contradicted by data showing no impact on the volume of cocaine entering the country. Journalists and human rights groups have identified some victims, many of whom were innocent or only low‑rank participants in trafficking networks.
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