Trump’s strikes against narco-terrorist boats to continue through end of term: US officials

Published September 2, 2026 5:00am ET | Updated September 2, 2026 8:19am ET



U.S. officials predicted that Operation Southern Spear, President Donald Trump‘s kinetic campaign against so-called narco-terrorist cartels in the Caribbean Sea, Pacific Ocean, and across Latin America, would continue through the end of his second term in office.

The Trump administration held a background briefing with reporters on Tuesday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the campaign. Officials claimed that the operation’s strikes against and interdictions of alleged drug trafficking boats, on top of strikes against land targets, have “resulted in orders of magnitude less drugs coming into our communities.”

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