Coast Guard suspends search for people who abandoned ship after US strikes on alleged drug boats
By Clay Voytek, CNN
(CNN) — The US Coast Guard announced Friday night it has suspended its search for people in the water after US strikes on alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean earlier this week.
The US military on Tuesday said it struck a “convoy” of three drug-trafficking boats in international waters, killing three people aboard one boat while those in the other two abandoned their vessel. The government has not disclosed how many crew members are thought to have jumped into the sea.
US Southern Command previously said it notified the Coast Guard after Tuesday’s strike to activate search and rescue efforts, but it did not say where the strike took place.
The Coast Guard said in a news release Friday that it coordinated more than 65 hours of search efforts about 400 nautical miles southwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border, but “available assets were extremely limited due to distance and range constraints.”
“Suspending a search is never easy and given the exhaustive search effort, lack of positive indications and declining probability of survival, we have suspended active search efforts pending further developments,” Coast Guard Capt. Patrick Dill said in the release. “At this stage of the response, the likelihood of a successful outcome, based on elapsed time, environmental conditions, and available resources for a person in the water is very low.”
The US military conducted strikes on suspected drug boats on Monday and Wednesday as well. At least 10 people were killed and six boats sunk in the three days of strikes this week, according to SOUTHCOM’s information — but that does not include the number of people who abandoned ship amid Tuesday’s strikes.
At least 115 crew members have been killed since the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged drug boats began in September, according to the Defense Department, not including those who went overboard on Tuesday.
The Trump administration has claimed it is carrying out the strikes to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, but administration officials have also suggested they are part of a pressure campaign aimed at ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, from whose country many of the stricken vessels have originated.
Lawmakers in Congress are continuing to pressure the Trump administration for more information about the strikes.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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