Incredible footage shows the moment a US Coast Guard sniper fired on a drug boat in the Pacific Ocean before seizing more than 20,000 pounds of cocaine.
The shocking footage shows the go-fast vessel wading in the water in the Pacific Ocean, just south of Mexico on Tuesday, when a US Coast Guard helicopter approaches.
A member of the Coast Guard’s Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron could then be seen lining up the shot before opening fire several times.
The sniper ultimately struck the boat’s propulsion system, disabling the boat’s engine as part of a drug interdiction mission for Operation Pacific Viper, according to Fox News.
The strike rendered boat’s engine useless. The vessel could be seen languishing in the water following the successful strike.
At that point, a Coast Guard boat could be seen pulling up to the go-fast vessel and personnel are then able to board the vessel and capture the illegal drugs stowed away.
Authorities now say they seized more than 20,000 pounds of cocaine from the drug boat, which amounts to more than 7.5 million lethal doses.
That greatly increases the Coast Guard’s total, after it announced that it had snatched 100,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific over the course of just a few weeks in October.
Those 100,000 pounds translates to roughly 1,600 pounds of cocaine seized each day, military officials have said.
The Coast Guard also reported in November that it had seized 510,000 pounds of cocaine in fiscal year 2025 – the largest amount of the illicit substance snatched in the service’s history.
That translates to 193 million potentially lethal doses – enough to jeopardize more than half of the US population, and amounts to more than three times the service’s annual average – which comes out to roughly 167,000 pounds each year.
The USCG is speeding up their operation in the Eastern Pacific Ocean as massive amounts of illegal narcotics are transported from Central and South America, the service has said.
It is now working with international partners to seize and disrupt the transport of cocaine and other criminal drugs.
The process starts with the US Southern Command’s Joint Interagency Task Force-South detecting the transit of illicit drugs, at which point, the operation shifts to the USCG to carry out the law enforcement actions and arrest the perps.
The Coast Guard is the lead federal agency for ocean drug interception, and is a joint force with the Department of Homeland Security team as the Trump administration takes on what they have described as ‘narco-terrorists.’
In addition to the Coast Guard’s efforts, the military has been conducting air strikes on boats suspected of transporting drugs.
But the Trump administration’s decision to fire upon ships from Venezuela on September 2 have been derided as ‘war crimes,’ after it was discovered that at least two men aboard the vessels survived the initial devastating blast.
Follow-up strikes then killed two survivors of the initial bombardment.
There are strict rules regulating follow-up strikes under international law, which Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is now accused of ignoring as he ordered his officers to kill all the individuals aboard the boats and leave no survivors.
Both the White House and Hegseth have refuted the allegations, but questions remain over whether the follow-up attacks were necessary.
After seeing footage of the attacks, Senator Jack Reed – the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee – said he was ‘deeply disturbed’ by what he saw and said the video ‘confirmed by worst fears about the nature of the Trump administration’s military activities.’
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes, a Democrat, also told reporters he was deeply disturbed as well.
‘What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things that I’ve seen in my time in public service,’ Himes said.
‘You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States.’
But the Trump administration has gained the support of Senate Intel Chairman Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, who declared Thursday that the four strikes were necessary.
‘About the strikes on September 2, which were righteous strikes; these are narco-terrorists who are trafficking drugs that are destined for the United States to kill thousands of Arkansans and millions of Americans,’ Senate Intel Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told reporters after exiting the briefing.
‘The first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on September 2, were entirely lawful and needful survivors,’ he added.
Cotton went on to say he saw ‘two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so they can stay in the fight.
‘We heard of other narco-terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narco-terrorists.’
If the men were still actively trying to pursue their drug-running mission, as the Pentagon and Cotton claim, there is leeway in accepting that they are lawful targets for a secondary engagement.
Still, most Americans want Trump to fire Hegseth over the incident, an exclusive Daily Mail poll found.
It showed that 54 percent of Americans say they think Hegseth should be fired for his recent actions heading the Pentagon, while 26 percent say he should keep his job and another 20 percent were unsure.
But when the uncertainty option was taken away from the 1,013 voters polled, a whopping 63 percent wanted Hegseth ousted.
The poll conducted December 3-5 – after revelations of the second strike circulated and criticism ensued – still indicates support for the Trump administration actions against Venezuela.
Nearly half of respondents say they support anti-narcoterrorism operations, while 30 percent say they are against the strikes.
