A new video has been released showing U.S. troops boarding and sinking a floating gas station in the eastern Pacific that intelligence has linked to the Ecuadorian group Los Chonros, the U.S. Southern Command said. Marines from Coastal Squadron 24 and sailors from the amphibious assault ship San Antonio conducted the interdiction operation as part of the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force in coordination with Ecuadorian authorities. The crew members were evacuated and taken to Ecuador for paperwork, after which the main ship and the auxiliary boats attached to it were sunk. Similar operations to board and sink similar logistics platforms were carried out repeatedly in late August and September 2026, marking a departure from previous airstrikes against suspect vessels. Los Choneros, which the US State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in September 2025, used such offshore gas stations to extend the reach of cocaine-smuggling vessels along a major Pacific corridor. The operations are part of efforts by America's Counter-Drug Coalition to disrupt maritime logistics that support drug trafficking, Southern Command said.

A new video has been released showing U.S. troops boarding and sinking a floating gas station in the eastern Pacific that intelligence has linked to the Ecuadorian group Los Chonros, the U.S. Southern Command said. Marines from Coastal Squadron 24 and sailors from the amphibious assault ship San Antonio conducted the interdiction operation as part of the Western Hemisphere Joint Task Force in coordination with Ecuadorian authorities. The crew members were evacuated and taken to Ecuador for paperwork, after which the main ship and the auxiliary boats attached to it were sunk. Similar operations to board and sink similar logistics platforms were carried out repeatedly in late August and September 2026, marking a departure from previous airstrikes against suspect vessels. Los Choneros, which the US State Department designated as a foreign terrorist organization in September 2025, used such offshore gas stations to extend the reach of cocaine-smuggling vessels along a major Pacific corridor. The operations are part of efforts by America's Counter-Drug Coalition to disrupt maritime logistics that support drug trafficking, Southern Command said.