The United States coast guard disabled a high-speed “go-fast” boat via helicopter sniper fire and seized over 20,000 pounds of cocaine in a single mission – the largest such haul by a national security cutter to date.Video put out by Fox News shows coast guard personnel, including a sniper from the service’s helicopter interdiction tactical squadron (HITRON), stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, firing at the vessel’s engines from a helicopter to disable the boat before boarding. The interception and seizure took place in the Eastern Pacific, south of Mexico. According to the Coast Guard, the haul represents more than 7.5 million potentially lethal doses of cocaine.
The operation was carried out under Operation Pacific Viper, a joint coast guard–navy initiative launched in August as part of the current administration’s crackdown on drug-trafficking cartels in Latin America. By October, the coast guard said the operation had already netted 100,000 pounds of cocaine in the eastern Pacific – roughly 1,600 pounds per day.In November, the coast guard reported nearly 510,000 pounds of cocaine seized in fiscal year 2025 – the highest annual total in the service’s history. Officials noted this amount translates to some 193 million potentially lethal doses, “enough to jeopardise more than half of the US population,” and amounts to more than three times the service’s usual yearly average of about 167,000 pounds.The “go-fast” boat interdiction is typical of the tactics used to curb the flow of narcotics across waterways. In such missions, HITRON snipers disable engines so that Coast Guard cutters and other assets can board and seize contraband. According to the service, this approach played a key role in the success of the most recent action.Separately, the administration has reportedly conducted at least 22 strikes against suspected drug vessels in Latin American waters since September. Some lawmakers have questioned the legality of those strikes – particularly one that targeted a second vessel after the first strike left survivors. In response, the White House asserted its authority to carry out such attacks.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff and Rand Paul on Wednesday introduced a war-powers resolution aimed at blocking the president from using US armed forces to conduct hostilities in or against Venezuela. Meanwhile, defence secretary Pete Hegseth affirmed that strikes on “narco-boats” will continue, saying, “We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they’ve been poisoning the American people.”
