UN expert says U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats may constitute crimes against humanity

A United Nations special rapporteur has concluded there are "reasonable grounds to believe" that U.S. military attacks on boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Pacific and Caribbean "constituted crimes against humanity."

Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, wrote in a briefing note posted Sunday that the attacks amounted to "serial extrajudicial killings" in violation of the right to life. He said the strikes were unjustified under self-defense, international humanitarian law, the law of the sea, narcotics conventions, or counterterrorism law.

Saul's report cites 68 U.S. attacks that killed 223 people between September 2025 and August 2026. Tallies by other organizations, including the Washington Office on Latin America, put the death toll higher, at 234 people across 66 attacks. Two additional strikes this month, including one on Saturday that killed four people in the Caribbean, have raised the count further.

The U.S. military has described the operations as part of an armed conflict with drug cartels. U.S. Southern Command said Saturday's strike targeted a "go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes" and killed four "narco-terrorists." As in previous announcements, the military did not identify the victims or disclose the intelligence it said confirmed their involvement.

Trump has told Congress the strikes amount to "self-defence" against "designated terrorist organizations." Saul rejected that framing. He wrote that the crews were not militarily armed and did not possess the intent or capacity to launch military attacks against the United States, and that drug trafficking is not equivalent to an armed attack. Even if those killed were members of groups the U.S. has designated as terrorist, he wrote, those organizations have not mounted an armed attack that would trigger a right of self-defense.

The UN and several human rights organizations had already described the bombings as extrajudicial killings. Saul's finding goes further, characterizing them as a potential crime against humanity — a category that implies systematic killings carried out under a state plan.

Journalists and human rights groups have identified some of the victims. In many cases they were not involved in drug trafficking, or were at best low-level participants in trafficking networks, according to the Guardian. Families of two Trinidadian men — Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41 — filed the first lawsuit against the U.S. government over the strikes in a federal court in Massachusetts in January, arguing the men were fishermen. The family of a Colombian man, Alejandro Carranza Medina, filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in December.

The strikes have not stopped cocaine from reaching the United States. Saul's report concluded they failed to prevent the arrival of cocaine on container ships, which are not adequately checked. Trump has claimed the bombings stopped 97 percent of illegal drugs entering the U.S. by sea; available data shows no impact on the volume of cocaine entering the country. Experts note most drugs enter the U.S. overland through Mexico and do not originate in Venezuela.

The U.S. State Department has not responded to a request for comment. The UN report called for internal investigations and for commanders involved in the operations to be held accountable.