Alleged drug boat destroyed in US-Ecuador operation

The United States military intercepted and destroyed an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Eastern Pacific on August 28 in a coordinated operation with Ecuador, officials said.

US Southern Command said its forces intercepted a vessel that it described as “operating as a floating refueling station” in support of Los Choneros, one of Ecuador’s main drug-trafficking and extortion gangs.

SOUTHCOM said the people on board were escorted to Ecuador before US forces destroyed the vessel. Video posted with the command’s statement showed a boat on fire after a large explosion.

The operation is part of Washington’s campaign against drug cartels operating from Latin America. President Donald Trump has argued that the United States is effectively at war with those cartels.

More than 200 people have been killed in US strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean during the campaign, according to an AFP tally. Trump’s administration has not provided definitive evidence that the vessels it has struck were involved in drug trafficking.

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa is a close Trump ally in Latin America. Ecuador joined Trump’s “Shield of the Americas,” a US-led coalition against drug trafficking in the region, in March.