LEILA FADEL, HOST:
U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have killed more than 200 people. The Trump administration claims these are drug boats, and President Trump often boasts about the results, as he did in a speech last Wednesday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Drugs coming in by ocean, sea, by water was cut 97%. We're trying to figure out who the 3% are because they are among the bravest people anywhere in the world.
FADEL: But there's been no proof presented publicly about what these boats are supposedly carrying on board. And an assessment from the Drug Enforcement Administration reviewed by The Washington Post says the strikes have not cut down on the amount of cocaine entering the U.S. Alex Horton is one of the Washington Post reporters who broke that story, and he's a national security reporter and joins me now. Good morning, Alex.
ALEX HORTON: Good morning, Leila. Thanks for having me.
FADEL: Thank you for being here and for this reporting. What specifically did this assessment by the Drug Enforcement Administration say?
HORTON: Well, it concluded that after nearly a year of deadly strikes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific that was meant to curtail the flow of drugs into the United States with attacks on suspected drug traffickers, it simply has not done that - that after a brief period of the traffickers taking a moment to assess what's going on and, you know, the prices going up in the U.S., they have since learned how the U.S. operates, learned their patterns and have simply adapted to it and sort of reorganized their system to keep producing cocaine and send it to the United States.
FADEL: I mean, let's talk about the legality of this entire strategy in a moment. But first, I want to talk about the effectiveness here. I mean, if they're hitting all these drug boats, why aren't the amount of drugs getting into the U.S. dropping? I know you said some of it's about adapting.
HORTON: Sure. You know, there have been a few exceptions of, like, the size of the vessels. Some of them, you know - one or two of them have been semi-submersibles, which can carry, you know, several tons of cocaine. But by and large, these are attacks on go-fast vessels, which are - you know, think about your average kind of speedboat. Doesn't carry that much, right? So if your intent is to reduce the flow of drugs into the United States by blowing up the boats that carry them, if you think about the multibillion-dollar industry that cartels rely on, you know, the - it might be a couple hundred pounds here and there.
And, you know, when you think about - take a step back and think about deterrence - like, this is going to stop people from taking drugs or thinking twice or finding fewer people to do it - that simply has not happened. The assessment has found that price and availability of cocaine in the U.S. remains unchanged compared to before the strikes, so it's had pretty much no effect on it.
FADEL: How does this assessment from the DEA differ from what the White House is saying?
HORTON: Well, I mean, you know, you just heard President Trump in that clip say...
FADEL: Yeah.
HORTON: ...You know, something like - to the effect of 98% of drugs have stopped. You know, we've heard that claim by the White House in reporting that story. And as far as we can tell, it was about kind of spikes in interdiction that happened before the strikes, you know, in the summer of 2025. So it's really kind of comparing apples to marshmallows here. It's not really - there's not really a measurement or metrics that have been produced by the White House, the Pentagon, the DEA - anybody - that say, we are having an effect on drugs in the United States, and here's how it is. And if anything, the same amount of drugs or more are still coming into the United States.
FADEL: Now, this entire strategy is quite controversial. Beyond whether it's effective, there's questions about the strikes' legality. I mean, what does your reporting show about whether what's happening is legal at all?
HORTON: Yeah. I mean, there's a pretty tight consensus among law-of-war experts and people who study military force and its legality that these strikes are illegal, that they're - they amount to extrajudicial killings without anything - any kind of trial, any kind of attempt to put them in front of any sort of prosecution. For decades, the Coast Guard and other forces have boarded these vessels and then sent them to trial. But here, you know, these are criminals or suspected criminals, not soldiers, not sailors in a military force. So this use of force in this area really does create legal hurdles for - if you want to follow the law of armed conflict.
FADEL: That's Washington Post national security reporter Alex Horton. Thank you, Alex.
HORTON: Appreciate it. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
