- PUERTO RICO, US — RELEASED ON NOV. 1 / OCT 31, 2025 — RESTRICTION: USERS MUST CREDIT "US SOUTHERN COMMAND" HANDOUT — FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY — The US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) on Saturday, Nov. 1, released footage of training operations in Puerto Rico targeting “illicit drug trafficking.”

The statement said US Marines also took part in the drills.

The US has previously conducted strikes on boats it said were linked to drug trafficking.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently announced that his department is forming a joint task force operating in the US Southern Command area of responsibility to target drug trafficking organizations.

Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief on Friday said recent US airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, said to be linked to drug trafficking, "violate international human rights law."

"Over 60 people have reportedly been killed in a continuing series of attacks carried out by US armed forces against boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since early September, in circumstances that find no justification in international law," Volker Turk said in a statement.

The US has argued the operations are part of anti-drug and counter-terrorism efforts governed by international humanitarian law. But Turk stressed that tackling cross-border drug trafficking is "a law-enforcement matter, governed by the careful limits on lethal force set out in international human rights law."