The U.S. Coast Guard began coordinating search and rescue operations with vessels in the area after USSOUTHCOM's kinetic strikes on three narco-trafficking vessels in international waters on December 30, with a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft en route to provide further search coverage, a USCG spokesperson said in a statement posted between 9:46 PM UTC on December 31 and 12:16 AM UTC on January 1. "The U.S. Coast Guard is coordinating search and rescue operations with vessels in the area," the spokesperson stated, adding that "a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft is en route to provide further search coverage with the ability to drop a survival raft and supplies." This follows USSOUTHCOM's notification to the US Coast Guard immediately after the strikes, as detailed in a USSOUTHCOM statement posted between 9:15 PM and 9:46 PM UTC on December 31. Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted the strikes at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth against vessels operated by designated terrorist organizations transiting known narco-trafficking routes, killing three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel, according to the USSOUTHCOM statement. Remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels by jumping overboard before follow-on engagements sank them, the statement said, tagged #OpSouthernSpear.
