The US military’s Southern Command announced a deadly strike on Monday, killing two suspected drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific. The strike was ordered by the new commander, Gen Francis L Donovan, who was sworn in last Thursday. It targeted a boat moving along known drug trafficking routes. The US Coast Guard searched for a lone survivor. This latest attack raises the death toll to at least 130 in 38 strikes, according to Pentagon data. On the same day, US forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Indian Ocean. This operation was part of an oil quarantine to block Venezuelan shipments, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Venezuela faces US oil sanctions and uses secretly flagged tankers to smuggle crude. After a US raid to capture Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro in January, many tankers fled the Venezuelan coast. The boarded vessel, Aquila II, is a Panamanian-flagged tanker under US sanctions related to illegal Russian oil shipments. It is being held while US officials decide its fate. The ship has often turned off its radio transponder, a tactic smugglers use to hide their locations. TankerTrackers.com reported Aquila II was one of 16 tankers that fled Venezuela last month. Current data shows it is not carrying crude oil. The Pentagon said the military “conducted a right-of-visit, maritime interdiction” because the ship ignored President Trump’s quarantine order in the Caribbean. Navy destroyers USS Pinckney, USS John Finn, and the mobile base ship USS Miguel Keith operated near the tanker in the Indian Ocean. Pentagon videos show forces boarding a helicopter from the Miguel Keith and approaching the tanker from a destroyer. Defense Secretary Hegseth promised, “None of those are getting away,” signaling strong US resolve against smuggling networks.