Eight Mexicans were reportedly among those killed in three separate strikes on boats in international waters by the U.S. military last week.
Seven of the victims were said to be from a fishing village in the western state of Nayarit, killed in two separate strikes in the Pacific Ocean.
Family members of the victims said they were notified of the deaths by personnel from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, but federal authorities had not confirmed the information publicly as of Sunday.
In a brief statement issued on Feb. 17, the U.S. Southern Command said a joint task force had conducted “three lethal kinetic strikes” on three vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” it said, adding that 11 “terrorists” were killed by the action, “four on the first vessel in the Eastern Pacific, four on the second vessel in the Eastern Pacific and three on the third vessel in the Caribbean.”
Local media in Nayarit reported that eight of the victims were from the municipality of Bahía de Banderas, seven of them from the village of Cruz de Huanacaxtle. A large number of U.S. citizens reside in Cruz de Huanacaxtle.
Although some publications called out the U.S. military for killing “innocent fishermen” and slammed the Mexican government for not publicly criticizing the attacks, other media implied that the victims were indeed involved with drug trafficking.
The newspaper La Jornada reported that “locals said the young boatmen were carrying gasoline ‘and supplying you-know-who,’ while the newspaper Reforma cited local sources claiming that the vessels in which the victims were traveling “are linked to alleged criminal operators in Nayarit.”
A family member of one of the victims lamented that his relative had “promised this was his last trip, and it really was going to be.”
This attack on a boat *that wasn’t even moving* was the 40th since September 2. We count 149 dead now, 22 of them in the first 20 days of February.
See https://t.co/j9jfLvdnsd https://t.co/6A2CQjUTat pic.twitter.com/XziQZJSMhQ
— Adam Isacson (@adam_wola) February 21, 2026
Reforma reported that the two boats belonged to Roberto Castellanos Meza, alias “Beto Bonques,” and Audias Flores Silva, “El Jardinero,” along with an alleged associate identified as Raúl Morín, “La Fresa.”
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control identified the “Bonques Brothers” as members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in a November 2024 press release.
“El Jardinero” is seen as a potential successor to CJNG boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, killed by the Mexican Army on Sunday.
Mexican authorities partially dismantled a CJNG cell operating in Bahía de Banderas last year, while on Feb. 19, the U.S. Treasury announced it had sanctioned a timeshare fraud ring led by the CJNG in the same area.
Cruz de Huanacaxtle is located about 27 kilometers (17 miles) northwest of Puerto Vallarta, scene of some of Sunday’s worst violence.
With reports from La Jornada, Infobae, Sin Embargo, Reforma and The Guardian
