The U.S. Coast Guard announced that its drug interdiction effort Operation Pacific Viper, which began in August 2025, has prevented 225,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific from reaching American shores.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bear seized 7,707 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific over the weekend, officially boosting the tally to almost a quarter of a million pounds of the illicit substance.
“Our forces conducting Operation Pacific Viper continue to defeat the cartels and stop the flow of deadly drugs to the United States,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard.
The Bear and an embarked helicopter crew incapacitated two drug-smuggling vessels, seized several thousand pounds of drugs and arrested six alleged narco-terrorists.
The Coast Guard said that 1.2 grams of cocaine can prove fatal and that the 225,000 pounds of cocaine seized were the equivalent of 93 million deadly doses that otherwise might have been injected into the streets of America.
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The Trump administration has been vocal about its commitment to deterring narco-terrorists, deploying controversial tactics to achieve results.
Along with Coast Guard efforts, the Trump administration and the Defense Department began conducting strikes in September 2025 against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in support of what the Pentagon has labeled counternarcotics efforts.
The administration has referred to the strikes as part of a “non-international armed conflict,” but legal experts have vocalized concerns that some of the strikes may have constituted war crimes.
As of June 17, the Defense Department has disclosed 64 strikes in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean as part of those efforts, killing at least 191 people.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.