{"id":79683,"date":"2025-09-16T23:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/09\/16\/ocean-isnt-free-fire-zone-for-us-military-drug-interdiction-analysis\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:34:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:34:56","slug":"ocean-isnt-free-fire-zone-for-us-military-drug-interdiction-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2025\/09\/16\/ocean-isnt-free-fire-zone-for-us-military-drug-interdiction-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean isn\u2019t free-fire zone for US military drug interdiction: Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When the U.S. military sank a boat allegedly carrying illegal narcotics from Venezuela<\/a> to the United States earlier this month, the incident created not just controversy but also a precedent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To some proponents, using the military is a justified means of mitigating a drug epidemic that killed 80,000 Americans<\/a> last year. And if military force is to be used, sinking drug vessels is a particularly enticing option: Better to drop bombs in the Caribbean than to send troops on drug raids into Mexico, the theory goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet sinking ships on the high seas also carries risks, some U.S. experts argue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAttacking cartel assets at sea avoids the sovereignty issues that arise with attacks on land,\u201d warn researchers Mark Cancian and Chris Park in an analysis<\/a> for the Center for International and Strategic Studies, a U.S. think tank, published Sept. 8. \u201cThat does not mean that international waters are a free-fire zone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cancian and Park liken employing the U.S. military to attack drug smugglers, \u201cto swatting flies with golden hammers \u2014 possible, but other approaches are better. The long-term military solution is to beef up the Coast Guard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t