On February 16, 2026, the United States military carried out lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels allegedly affiliated with “a Designated Terrorist Organization,” reportedly killing eight men described as “narco-terrorists” in the Eastern Pacific.

A total of three strikes on vessels were announced in a statement published by @Southcom on Twitter/X on February 17th, stating that the vessels were allegedly “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes” and “were engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” The second strike which also occurred in the Pacific has also been assessed within this incident due to challenges disaggregating the casualties but the third strike which occurred in the Caribbean Sea has been assessed separately in USMAR260216c. In a video included in the post, a boat with visible movement onboard can be seen floating for seconds before it erupts into flames and smoke. A second boats is then seen moving through the water with visible movement onboard before it also erupts into flames and smoke. A third boat is also seen floating in the water until it also erupts into flames and smoke. It is unclear which boat in the videos depicts which incident and subsequent casualties.

Days after the strike, on February 21st, SinEmbargo reported that two boats carrying eight fishermen from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Corral del Risco, Mexico was bombed, killing all eight. A memorial mass was held for the men on Thursday the 19th at the Santa Cruz Church. The names of the eight fisherman who were killed were listed: Edgar Valerio Ramos, Diego Ocampo González, Pedro Torres Falcón, Luis Carlos Torres Jiménez, Carlos Torres Zamora, Abel Ramos Jiménez, Braulio Cruz Joya, and José Francisco Reyes García. Cruz Joya was from Corral del Risco while the rest of the men were from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.

According to reporting from the LA Times in July 2026, the eight fisherman had set out before dawn from Punta Pérula. Cellphone images included in the article show the memorial service held at sea on July 7th where mourners gathered on dozens of boats to remember the victims. The LA Times interviewed eight people in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle familiar with the case that "the men sometimes earned extra cash by transporting gasoline to the high seas, where they would refill speedboats ferrying cocaine from South America."

Methodological note about classification of those killed in this incident

In documenting this incident, Airwars is following the guidance outlined by independent International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law experts, whereby those on the vessels are understood to be civilians, given that the legal framework in which the strikes are being conducted remains in question.

Airwars has therefore included a civilian casualty count of eight deaths.