The U.S. Coast Guard has reported a record seizure of 510,000 pounds of cocaine during the fiscal year 2025, the largest amount ever captured in the agency’s history. However, this success is overshadowed by growing international backlash against the Trump Administration for a related military campaign that has resulted in over sixty deaths since early September.
This year's cocaine haul is more than three times the Coast Guard’s usual annual average of 167,000 pounds, translating to about 193 million potentially dangerous doses.
“The Coast Guard’s top priority is to gain complete operational control of the U.S. border and its waters,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, the acting commandant of the Coast Guard. “We dominate the seas, and this historic cocaine seizure demonstrates our efforts in fighting narco-terrorist and cartel activities to safeguard our communities and keep harmful drugs off our streets.”
The Coast Guard is the main federal agency in the U.S. responsible for drug interdiction at sea. These operations typically involve collaboration with the U.S. Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force-South, based in Key West, Florida, which tracks drug movements and then transfers control to the Coast Guard for law enforcement responses.
Traditionally, the Coast Guard intercepts suspected drug vessels, while a multi-agency group known as "Panama Express" manages investigations and prosecutions to ensure lawful actions are taken under criminal law.
However, since early September, the U.S. military has carried out at least 15 airstrikes on suspected drug vessels following presidential orders, marking a significant shift from standard maritime law enforcement procedures. These strikes have led to fatalities among individuals from Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Last Friday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stated that these strikes “violate international human rights law,” adding, “These attacks – and their growing human cost – are unacceptable. The U.S. must stop these actions and ensure no extrajudicial killings occur, regardless of the alleged criminal activities.”
Türk emphasized that drug interdiction should be handled as a law-enforcement issue with strict limits on the use of lethal force according to international human rights standards.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Vermont Senator Peter Welch, are demanding that the Department of Justice provide all legal documents that support these strikes. A letter signed by all Democratic committee members, including Ranking Member Dick Durbin, pointed out that “summarily killing criminal suspects is prohibited under both domestic and international law, whether in peacetime or wartime.”
Welch stated on the Senate floor, “If the President wants to start a war or place American troops in danger, he needs to get authorization from Congress.”
Amnesty International condemned the strikes as “illegal” and called on Congress to prevent any further bombings. Daphne Eviatar, the Director for Human Rights and Security at Amnesty International USA, remarked, “In the past two months, the U.S. military’s Southern Command has been on a killing spree, following the illegal orders of the Trump administration.”
In the meantime, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the U.S. Southern Command area to strengthen efforts against transnational criminal organizations, joining other naval assets already deployed in the Caribbean.
The Justice Department has also disbanded the Panama Express task force, which operated since the Reagan era, and shifted remaining cases to a newly formed Homeland Security Task Force.