Operation Southern Spear: Inside the US Military's Secretive War on Drug Boats at Sea

Since September 2025, the US military has carried out more than 60 strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing more than 220 people. In a military campaign called Operation Southern Spear, President Donald Trump’s administration has claimed to wage war against “narcoterrorism”. Yet the government has released little information about who was killed, the evidence against them or how targets were selected.

In Killing at Sea, Fault Lines investigates the administration’s claims about Operation Southern Spear by uncovering the stories of those targeted and the evidence used to justify lethal military force. Through the stories of families left searching for answers, alongside witness accounts, physical evidence and interviews with legal experts, Fault Lines asks whether the strikes are lawful, whether they have disrupted the drug trade and what accountability exists for those killed.

From fishing communities in the Caribbean to Washington, DC, Killing at Sea examines a military campaign conducted largely beyond public view—and asks who is being killed in the US’s new war at sea, and why.