Sep 2 2025 – The U.S. Navy fires missiles at a vessel off Venezuela suspected of carrying cocaine, then orders a second strike minutes later that kills two survivors clinging to the wreckage, prompting congressional inquiries into a possible “double‑tap” violation of the laws of armed conflict [27].

Sep 5 2025 – The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issues a 40‑page opinion classifying drug trafficking as a terrorist activity, thereby authorizing lethal military force against “designated terrorist organizations” operating drug boats [27].

Dec 4 2025 – Southern Command conducts a kinetic strike on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four crew members and marking the 22nd known “Southern Spear” attack since September 2025 [24].

Dec 6 2025 – The campaign’s cumulative impact reaches at least 87 deaths after more than 20 boats are destroyed, underscoring the administration’s push to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro [27].

Dec 15 2025 – U.S. forces strike three Pacific vessels, killing eight people; President Trump defends the operation as a necessary escalation in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels [26].

Dec 17 2025 – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders a strike that kills four men on a drug‑smuggling boat; Trump later claims a “94 % drop in drug shipments by sea” during a national address [22].

Dec 18 2025 – Two coordinated strikes on separate boats kill five people (three on one vessel, two on another) at the direction of Secretary Hegseth, bringing the known strike count to 28 and total fatalities to at least 104 [20][21].

Dec 23 2025 – A U.S. kinetic strike on a low‑profile vessel in the Eastern Pacific kills one person, raising the overall death toll to 105 across 29 strikes since early September [19].

Dec 29 2025 – Two men are killed when Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducts a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations; the operation is directed by Secretary Hegseth [29].

Dec 30 2025 – A three‑boat convoy is hit, killing three crew members; survivors jump into the sea to escape the blast, later described by Colombian President Gustavo Petro as “people leapt into the Pacific to escape a U.S. strike” [16].

Dec 31 2025 – Over two days, U.S. forces strike five alleged drug‑smuggling boats, killing eight people in total; Southern Command notifies the Coast Guard to launch search‑and‑rescue for survivors [17].

Jan 2 2026 – President Petro says “the attacks are murders” and that survivors jumped into the ocean after a U.S. strike that killed five on Dec 31, warning the campaign could widen regional conflict [16].

Jan 3 2026 – The U.S. Coast Guard suspends a 65‑hour search for people in the water after a convoy strike, noting at least 115 crew deaths since the campaign began in September 2025 [14]; simultaneously, the service continues a separate hunt for survivors across 1,000 nautical miles [15].

Early Jan 2026 – U.S. forces capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife aboard the USS Iwo Jima, transporting them to New York for narco‑terrorism charges, a move framed as part of the broader pressure campaign [8].

Jan 23 2026 – Southern Command orders a kinetic strike on a drug‑trafficking boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing two occupants and leaving one survivor; the operation is the first lethal strike since the Maduro capture and is directed by Secretary Hegseth, who posts “some top cartel drug‑traffickers… have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY” [11][12][10].

Feb 6 2026 – A strike on an alleged drug vessel kills two, raising the campaign death toll to 128; Defense Secretary Hegseth repeats his claim that “some top cartel drug‑traffickers… have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY,” while families of two Trinidadian victims file a lawsuit alleging “lawless killings in cold blood” [10][1].

Feb 10 2026 – Marine Lance Corporal Chukwuemeka Oforah is declared dead after falling overboard from the USS Iwo Jima during the Maduro‑capture operation, prompting a 72‑hour search involving five Navy ships and ten aircraft [8].

Feb 14 2026 – The Pentagon reports 124 people killed in 40 boat strikes since September 2025, noting ongoing Coast Guard searches for missing survivors from recent attacks [9].

Feb 17 2026 – U.S. forces strike three alleged drug boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, killing all 11 occupants and pushing the cumulative death toll to at least 135; a classified memo from the previous fall had authorized lethal force against a secret list of cartels [5].

Feb 18 2026 – Another operation kills eight men in the Eastern Pacific and three in the Caribbean, bringing total campaign fatalities to 145 and linking the strikes to pressure on Maduro’s government [8].

Feb 20 2026 – A kinetic strike in the Eastern Pacific kills three suspected narco‑terrorists, marking the sixth publicly disclosed attack of 2026 and the second strike within a week [4].

Feb 21 2026 – Southern Command posts video confirming the Feb 20 strike, noting three fatalities and no U.S. casualties; the post cites Gen. Francis L. Donovan’s orders and raises the overall death count to 148 across 43 attacks [6][7].

Feb 23 2026 – A Caribbean‑sea kinetic strike kills three alleged drug‑smuggling crew members; Gen. Donovan again orders the operation, and the campaign death toll climbs to at least 150 [28].