US Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) stated in a letter to the White House that the military has exceeded the parameters of President Donald Trump’s orders in striking alleged drug-smuggling vessels as part of its counternarcotics operation.
Kaine noted that a Department of Defense order implementing a July directive was issued in October 2025. Following a review of classified materials, including a legal memorandum from the Department of Justice, Kaine suggested the US is engaged in fatal attacks against people far beyond those the legal opinion claimed could be lawfully targeted.
The Senator stated that the boat strikes in the Pacific and Caribbean, which began last September, have likely killed individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking. Kaine asserted that some of the strikes' targets are murder victims.
Operation costs and casualties
The boat strikes have killed at least 218 people, according to an ABC News count.
Spent by the US Pentagon on Operation Southern Spear, according to a recent inspector general report.
Government response
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly stated that the strikes have been against designated narcoterrorists and that President Trump has taken unprecedented action to stop narcoterrorism.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the military's strikes, arguing that the operations are lawful under domestic and international law. At a Senate hearing in June, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the Defense Department determined the strikes' legality based on intelligence information.
President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social that 98.2% of drugs coming into the U.S. by ocean or sea have stopped, though there is no evidence for this claim.
Senator Kaine requested President Trump to look into the extent to which the Department of Defense leadership has exceeded the July 2025 directive and to halt the operation.
