The USS San Antonio tracked and interdicted the ship in international waters. Sailors and Marines from Littoral Combat Force-24 launched from the San Antonio and boarded the ship. They searched the vessel without incident, SOUTHCOM said. According to the U.S. military, the ship provided fuel for drug trafficking boats operating in the eastern Pacific.

The operation was done in coordination with Ecuador’s government. According to SOUTHCOM, the ship was operated by the Los Choneros organization, a drug trafficking group based out of Ecuador. Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned several people and companies allegedly linked to Los Choneros and Los Lobos, two groups the U.S. government designated as foreign terrorist organizations last September.

After the boat was captured, the crew onboard was taken back to Ecuador, SOUTHCOM said, before the ship was sunk. Video of the sinking released by SOUTHCOM mirrors similar footage of strikes on alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean.

Gen. Francis Donovan, the head of SOUTHCOM, said that Friday’s operation dealt a “decisive blow to a narco-terrorist operation responsible for moving significant amounts of drugs through the region.”

The operation comes a week after the governor of Ecuador’s Esmeraldas province said that Green Berets from the Army’s 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) were conducting joint operations against cartels in the region near the Colombian border. Ecuador’s defense minister also shared news that two U.S. ships, which turned out to be the USS San Antonio and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Gridley, were arriving to help assist going after drug boats near the port city of Manta. After a two-month pause, the U.S. restarted airstrikes on alleged small drug boats on Aug. 23, sinking one ship in the eastern Pacific.

Since the start of the summer, the U.S. has stepped up diplomatic and military pressure in Latin America, targeting narcotics networks. Littoral Combat Force-24, comprising roughly 1,300 Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, deployed to the Caribbean earlier this year. Troops are based out of Puerto Rico and the USS San Antonio. Its mission was described as taking on “networks utilized by Designated Terrorist Organizations and narco-terrorists,” the term the Trump administration is using for drug traffickers. That military effort has largely centered around airstrikes on small boats allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, with some instances of U.S. troops seizing and searching some ships. The Coast Guard has maintained its ongoing interdiction mission, even as the Pentagon has carried out dozens of airstrikes on small boats.

The San Antonio sailed into the area last week with the USS Gridley. Both are assigned to Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, the successor to Joint Task Force Southern Spear. Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere is operating in support of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, a U.S.-led partnership in Latin America to go after drug cartels. Operations in Ecuador have been the first significant campaign by the coalition.

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As part of the ongoing Rim of the Pacific multi-national exercise, American and allied militaries unloaded missiles and other weapons on the USS Peleliu and USS Mobile Bay on July 11 and 17, respectively. It was part of a sinking exercise, or SINKEX.

Video released by the Navy’s 3rd Fleet show the ships being hit above and below the waterline, with fire and water bursting up from the direct strikes.

The operation featured units from the United States Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Italy and Japan, with several helicopter units firing missiles into the decommissioned vessels. 

Both ships were taken out more than 50 nautical miles away from the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The U.S. contingent included units from the Army, Navy and Air Force, with AH-64 Apache helicopters blasting the USS Mobile Bay with Spike Non-Line of Sight missiles.

The Navy meanwhile used multiple one-way attack surface drones to hit the Peleliu. These kinds of maritime attack drones have been used extensively by Ukraine in its ongoing war, and the U.S. recently used them for the first time in combat this month against Iran.

The SINKEX let the participating units gain “proficiency in tactics, targeting and live-firing against a surface ship at sea,” the 3rd Fleet said in a statement.

“SINKEXs are a prime example of the strength and readiness our partnerships create,”  Vice Adm. Jeff Jablon, the RIMPAC 2026 Commander, Combined Task Force, said.

The USS Peleliu, named for the battle that saw fierce fighting during World War II, was a Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship that entered service in 1980. It saw several deployments, including to Somalia in the 1990s and transporting troops to Afghanistan. It also supported the war effort in Iraq, before being decommissioned in 2015.

The USS Mobile Bay meanwhile was a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser that was in service from 1987-2023. It deployed to the Pacific multiple times to help with humanitarian and peacekeeping missions, and supported the war in Iraq. It took part in the 2022 edition of RIMPAC before its decommissioning.

It’s the second time a Ticonderoga-class cruiser was sunk in an exercise, a Navy official told Task & Purpose. The USS Valley Force, which was decommissioned in 2004, was used as a target in 2006.

The two SINKEX events this month come only a few weeks after the United States and partner forces sank the decommissioned Austin-class amphibious transport dock USS Juneau during the Valiant Shield exercise.

Beyond just being a chance for troops to fire on a major target outside of combat situations, SINKEX events are often a chance for units to train with and test new equipment and ordnance. During the SINKEX with the Juneau, a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber fired a AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (or LRASM), the first time the Air Force announced the bomber could carry that munition.

This year’s edition of RIMPAC involves more than 30,000 personnel from 30 nations. It wraps on July 31.

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