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Tag: vessel

  • Drugs entering the US by sea down 97% since vessel strikes?

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    President Donald Trump has cited dramatic results from U.S. strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, saying they’ve nearly stopped the flow of drugs trafficked to the U.S. by water.

    Since September 2025, the U.S. has struck at least 40 alleged drug vessels, killing 149 people.

    “With our action in the Gulf of America, that sounds so nice when I hear the Gulf of America, drugs entering our country by sea are down 97%,” Trump said at a Jan. 29 White House event. “So when you see the boats being hit, those boats kill on average 25,000 people a boat.” We’ve rated the statement about 25,000 deaths Pants on Fire. 

    Even though Trump mentioned the Gulf of America, his comments appeared to reference the Caribbean and Pacific strikes.

    When asked for evidence about the 97% claim, the White House pointed us to Customs and Border Protection statistics from July 2025 to November 2025. Those numbers show a 98% drop in the pounds of drugs seized by CBP air and marine operations. 

    But drug seizures tell us only how many drugs are stopped from entering the U.S. There isn’t data to show how many drugs are being sent to the U.S. or how many are making it in. Drug experts also say changes in drug seizure data aren’t sufficient to make definitive statements about policy outcomes.

    “No one knows how much doesn’t get caught, so no one can cite a precise percentage change,” Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon University drug policy researcher, said. “Trump is making a claim about something that is unknowable.”

    The White House didn’t explain why it chose those months. There has been a drop in CBP drug seizures since September 2025 when the vessel strikes began, but the percentage drop fluctuates depending on the months compared.

    Additionally, the Coast Guard — not CBP — oversees most drug seizures on water, especially in international waters, an agency spokesperson told PolitiFact. Its data shows a spike in annual cocaine seizures — 200% in fiscal year 2025 compared with its yearly average. (The Coast Guard generally focuses on cocaine seizures, while CBP’s 98% decline is mainly related to marijuana.) 

    While the White House cites a drop in CBP drug seizures as a success, the Coast Guard cites an increase in seizures as a sign of strong enforcement.

    This image from video provided by U.S. South Command, shows a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean shortly before it was destroyed by the U.S. military, killing two and injuring one, Jan. 23, 2026. (U.S. Southern Command via AP)

    An uncharacteristically high month for marijuana seizures inflates percent drop

    The White House’s calculation starts in July 2025, which was an outlier with an uncharacteristically high number of marijuana seizures. In July, CBP seized 224,000 pounds of drugs, including 203,000 pounds of marijuana. CBP seizes about 20,000 pounds of all types of drugs in a month.

    From August 2025, the last month before the vessel strikes began, to January, the latest available data, CBP drug seizures dropped 79%.

    For the Coast Guard, drug seizures are up.

    In the 2025 fiscal year which ended in September, the Coast Guard seized 510,000 pounds of cocaine, a 200% increase from a typical fiscal year when the Coast Guard seizes about 167,000 pounds of cocaine. 

    In August 2025, the Coast Guard launched an operation to target cartels and criminal organizations. From August 2025 to February 2026, the Coast Guard seized 200,000 pounds of cocaine more than it seizes in a typical year, according to agency press releases. 

    The Coast Guard has hailed the increase in seizures as a success in “preventing the flow of dangerous drugs into American communities.”

    Statistics don’t show how many drugs make it into the US

    Regardless of the data point, it’s unknown how many drugs enter the U.S. each year. Drug seizures show only how many pounds of a drug were stopped from getting into the U.S.

    “It’s a black market. And so by definition, we do not have good market data,” Elizabeth Dickinson, deputy program director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that researches global crises.

    The decrease in CBP seizures could point to less enforcement or fewer drugs moving on a specific route, Dickinson said. “There’s really not a good way to understand that data,” she said.

    Dickinson said the Trump administration’s drug enforcement efforts, such as the vessel strikes, have “scared some traffickers away from using specific routes.” 

    Rather than stop trafficking, they might have rerouted. 

    “Drug trafficking is a very old and mature business, in many ways, these organizations have been in a cat and mouse game with law enforcement, not just for years, but really for decades,” Dickinson said. They “are expert at reconfiguring routes, finding new ways to ship things, and innovating in a way to avoid enforcement.”

    Our ruling

    Trump said, after U.S. vessel strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, “drugs entering our country by sea are down 97%.”

    The administration hasn’t provided any evidence that the vessels it has struck were carrying drugs.

    There has been a drop in CBP drug seizures since the strikes began. But the Coast Guard — not CBP — oversees most drug seizures on water, especially in international waters. And that agency has seen a steep increase in drug seizures.

    The White House cites a drop in CBP drug seizures as a success at the same time the Coast Guard cites an increase in drug interdictions as a success, too. 

    However, neither an increase nor a decrease in drug seizures shows how many drugs are entering the U.S. That number is unknowable, according to drug experts. Drug seizures tell us only how many drugs are stopped from entering the U.S.

    Trump’s statement is unsubstantiated. We rate it False.

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  • US military says 2 strikes on alleged drug boats kill 5 in eastern Pacific

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    The U.S. military said Thursday that it had conducted two more strikes against boats it said were smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing five people.U.S. Southern Command posted on social media, “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” though it did not provide evidence. It posted videos of each boat speeding through water before being struck by an explosion.The military said three people in one vessel and two in the other were killed.The attacks brought the total number of known boat strikes to 28 while at least 104 people have been killed, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.The administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign. The first attack in early September involved a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.

    WASHINGTON —

    The U.S. military said Thursday that it had conducted two more strikes against boats it said were smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing five people.

    U.S. Southern Command posted on social media, “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” though it did not provide evidence. It posted videos of each boat speeding through water before being struck by an explosion.

    The military said three people in one vessel and two in the other were killed.

    The attacks brought the total number of known boat strikes to 28 while at least 104 people have been killed, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.

    The administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign. The first attack in early September involved a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.

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  • Dozens of cargo containers fall off vessel at Port of Long Beach. Investigators search for answers

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    At least 50 shipping containers slipped off a vessel at the Port of Long Beach on Tuesday morning, leaving officials scrambling to determine what happened.

    Port spokesperson Art Marroquin said the ship, the Mississippi, was berthed at Terminal G just before 9 a.m. when the containers mysteriously fell overboard into the water.

    Marroquin and other port officials did not respond to questions about the ship. They confirmed, however, that no injuries were reported and all operations have been temporarily suspended as responders work to secure the containers.

    Port officials are in the preliminary stages of investigating what caused the incident.

    An online site dedicated to tracking ships says the Mississippi flies under a Portuguese flag and was last docked in China two weeks ago.

    The incident happened only four days after the port was named the Best West Coast seaport in North America for a seventh straight year by the trade publication Asia Cargo News.

    The port handles more than 9 million 20-foot containers per year from 2,000 vessels, moving one-fourth of all containers on the West Coast.

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    Andrew J. Campa

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  • Russian superyacht, with helideck and marble fireplace, was seized. Now you can bid on it

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    The Russian oligarch billionaire lifestyle can be yours for the potentially low, low price of tens of millions of dollars, courtesy of the U.S. government.

    The National Maritime Services, working on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service, is auctioning off a superyacht, the $300-million-plus Amadea, which currently sits in a San Diego harbor, with a bid deposit starting at $10 million.

    Florida-based Fraser Yachts, the auction’s promotional agents, described the prize “as one of the most comprehensively equipped yachts in her class.”

    The luxury yacht Amadea, which officials say was seized from a Russian oligarch, is set to be auctioned.

    (U.S. Marshals Service and National Maritime Services)

    The 348-foot-long ship was built in 2017 and can comfortably host 16 guests in eight luxurious staterooms.

    An additional 21 cabins can house a professional crew of up to 36 workers.

    One of the ship’s jewels is a glass elevator that serves all decks, while a second lift is available for crew.

    The yacht includes a glass-edged mosaic pool with submerged barstools, and an outdoor bar area surrounded by sun pads (cushioned areas for perfecting your tan).

    The ship’s main salon showcases a piano and marble fireplace.

    A huge yacht with a city skyline behind it.

    The superyacht Amadea sails into San Diego Bay on June 27.

    (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

    The yacht was designed by Espen Øino, the acclaimed Norwegian designer and naval architect, while its decadent interiors were created by designer François Zuretti.

    The ship has an ocean-crossing range of 8,000 nautical miles at a speed of 13 knots.

    For late-arriving quests, the Amadea also boasts a helideck.

    The U.S. Justice Department maintained in a 2023 civil forfeiture complaint that Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov was the ship’s owner. Kerimov took possession of the vessel sometime around 2021, though his transactions were cloaked through shell companies, according to the complaint.

    A small boat is seen beneath the bow of a large boat.

    The Amadea is escorted by the Coast Guard in the ocean off San Diego. The vessel was seized from a sanctioned Russian oligarch, officials say.

    (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

    Kerimov was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 and labeled a “specially designated national” for his alleged role in money laundering related to the purchase of French villas.

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control determined Kerimov was a direct beneficiary of Russian President Vladimir Putin and “played a key role in advancing Russia’s malign activities,” which includes the invasion of Ukraine.

    The U.S. has said it’s working with allies to put pressure on Russian oligarchs, some of whom are close to Putin and have had their yachts seized, to try to compel him to stop the war, the Associated Press reports.

    The Amadea was seized in Fiji in April 2022 and arrived in San Diego in June that year.

    The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in March that the Amadea was to be forfeited to the federal government. That decision is being appealed by the man who claims to own the sumptuous vessel — Eduard Khudainatov, the nonsanctioned former chairman of Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, according to the Associated Press. U.S. prosecutors maintain that Khudainatov is a straw owner of the yacht.

    On July 1, the Marshals Service authorized Fraser Yachts as the promotional agent for the sealed bid auction.

    The auction is being conducted in U.S. dollars and is running until 11 a.m. on Sept. 10 at amadeaauction.com/.

    The initial deposit necessary to make a bid is $10 million. All bids will remain sealed, with the highest bidder winning the yacht.

    Should multiple participants tie with the top price, each bidder will be given a chance to increase their offering until a winner is determined.

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    Andrew J. Campa

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  • Dangerous proximity of ships, pipeline led to Orange County oil spill; investigators urge reform

    Dangerous proximity of ships, pipeline led to Orange County oil spill; investigators urge reform

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    A federal agency wants changes in how container ships are anchored off Southern California as well as new safety measures for vessels near offshore pipelines to help prevent or minimize ruptures like the one that spilled 25,000 gallons of crude oil off Huntington Beach.

    The 2021 spill caused damage to beaches and wetlands and killed scores of fish and birds.

    After a sweeping, two-year review, the National Transportation Safety Board released findings Tuesday that the Orange County spill was a direct result of container ships anchoring in close proximity to offshore pipelines. The board called for the U.S. Coast Guard to increase the buffer between anchored ships and pipelines.

    The catastrophe also could have been avoided with improved communication and planning between those monitoring the massive container ships in Southern California’s ports and the operators of the pipelines, investigators found.

    The probe into the major oil spill off Huntington Beach confirmed initial findings that indicated a months-earlier anchor strike caused the undersea pipeline to burst, sending at least 25,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific. The investigation found no other possible cause of the damage, officials said at an almost four-hour NTSB meeting Tuesday.

    NTSB investigators specifically blamed the “proximity of established anchorage positions to the pipeline,” which made it difficult for crews to prevent the anchors of two container ships from striking the pipeline during stormy weather in January 2021.

    Though two ships — the MSC Danit and Cosco Beijing — struck the pipeline with their anchors, investigators determined the former caused the “initiating event” that led to the spill.

    NTSB officials said that, given the ships’ locations, there was not sufficient time to weigh anchor or redirect the vessels when bad weather struck. This finding led the board to recommend that the U.S. Coast Guard revamp its plan governing the locations of ships anchored off Southern California to provide a greater margin of error among pipelines.

    “Anchorages need to be designed to account for the size of vessels using them and the time it takes for these ships’ crews to react when anchor dragging occurs,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement.

    In the 2021 incident off Huntington Beach, the initial contact from the anchor caused “progressive cracks” in Houston-based Amplify Energy’s 17.3-mile underwater pipeline, which eventually burst in October, almost nine months later. The two giant ships had been anchored outside the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports as vessels stacked up during the COVID-era supply chain backups, officials said.

    The probe found two other factors also contributed to the spill: When the ships dragged their anchors, the pipeline operators were never notified — a step that officials noted is not yet required. Also, months later, the operators’ response to leak alarms was significantly delayed.

    Based on those findings, board members urged the Coast Guard to implement new alarms for its marine traffic monitors who stand watch over busy waterways, to signal when anchors might come close to pipelines in any U.S. waterway, as well as to put in place processes for notifying pipeline operators when such contact may have occurred.

    Although the NTSB does not have regulatory or enforcement power, its recommendations carry weight.

    Investigators also found pipeline operators involved in the 2021 spill had “insufficient training,” which contributed to a 14-hour delay in halting the pipeline’s operation after the first alarm sounded to indicate a possible leak — confirming prior reports of a delayed response.

    “It took eight total leak alarms before controllers shut down and isolated the line,” the NTSB said in a statement. “Had the San Pedro Bay Pipeline controllers responded in accordance with company procedures and shut down and isolated the line at the first alarm, it would have significantly reduced the volume of crude oil released and the resulting environmental damage.”

    The NTSB board also is seeking a federal audit of the company operating the pipeline, a subsidiary of Amplify Energy. Although the report didn’t find any indication that drugs were a factor in the spill, it said operators were not given drug or alcohol tests after the spill — as regulations require — so it’s impossible to know for sure.

    Amplify Energy did not immediately respond Tuesday to questions about the findings or recommendations.

    “Although there were no human injuries, there most certainly was injury to the environment and to the wildlife and their habitats,” Homendy said Tuesday. She said the estimated damage and cleanup costs from the spill were $160 million, and a total of 116 dead birds were recovered.

    Pinpointing fault in the spill before these findings created a string of complicated lawsuits, court cases and settlements. It wasn’t immediately clear if any would be affected by the federal investigation.

    The companies behind the two container ships agreed earlier this year to pay Amplify Energy almost $100 million.

    As for the energy firm, it pleaded guilty last year to federal environmental charges and later pleaded no contest to state charges, making financial payouts totaling millions of dollars in both cases. Amplify also agreed to pay $50 million to residents and business owners affected by the spill.

    Earlier this year, the company reopened the pipeline after receiving an OK from federal regulators.

    Times staff writers Laura J. Nelson and Hannah Fry contributed to this report.

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    Grace Toohey

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