The Defense Department’s inside watchdog has mentioned it’s evaluating US Southern Command’s operations which have included strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats within the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
It comes because the strikes, which have targeted nearly 60 vessels and killed over 190 people since they started final fall, have been closely scrutinized by authorized specialists, members of Congress and even some military lawyers within the Pentagon.
The inspector common’s goal is to find out whether or not SOUTHCOM adopted permitted focusing on strategies when conducting the operations, in accordance with a letter dated May 11 from the Pentagon’s inspector common’s workplace.
A spokesperson for the inspector common’s workplace confirmed to NCS that the scope of the analysis contains “the joint process for targeted vessels in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility as part of Operation Southern Spear,” which is the Pentagon’s title for its marketing campaign towards drug trafficking.
The inspector common’s workplace added the challenge was “self-initiated” primarily based on its “ongoing assessment” of Pentagon operations.
NCS has reached out to the Pentagon and US Southern Command for extra details about the analysis.
Since launching strikes as a part of Operation Southern Spear final September, the Trump administration has sought to justify the assaults by claiming the US is in an “armed conflict” towards drug cartels and labeled these killed as enemy combatants.
It’s unclear what the precise scope of the inspector common’s analysis will embrace.
The Trump administration justified the deadly strikes in a categorised Justice Department authorized opinion, NCS reported in October 2025, arguing that the president is allowed to authorize lethal drive towards a broad vary of cartels as a result of they pose an imminent menace to Americans.
NCS also previously reported that US navy officers had been involved in regards to the legality of the assaults. Adm. Alvin Holsey, who beforehand oversaw Southern Command, clashed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the operations within the weeks earlier than he introduced his retirement, which got here only one yr into his tenure.
Hegseth didn’t imagine Holsey was shifting shortly or aggressively sufficient to fight drug traffickers within the Caribbean, and he complained about not being given the data he wanted in regards to the operations, two sources aware of the matter instructed NCS on the time.
Scrutiny of the operations towards the boats elevated on Capitol Hill on the finish of final yr after it emerged that the navy had carried out an apparent follow-up strike focusing on the survivors on an alleged drug boat. Lawmakers voiced concerns in regards to the strike, with some Democrats saying it may represent a “war crime.”
The frequency of recognized strikes on the alleged boats has slowed in latest months following the US military’s capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, however the assaults have continued. The most up-to-date one on May 8 killed two folks, in accordance with SOUTHCOM.