The U.S. Coast Guard is continuing to search for survivors after a strike Tuesday targeting three suspected narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy in the Eastern Pacific.
The ships, allegedly operated by designated terrorist organizations, were traveling in international waters and allegedly transferred narcotics between the three vessels prior to the strikes.
Three narco-terrorists were reportedly killed aboard the first vessel, while those on the remaining two abandoned ship before follow-on engagements sank the vessels.
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It is unclear how many survivors escaped the vessels.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson told Fox News officials began coordinating search efforts at about 3 p.m. Tuesday after receiving notification from the Department of War of people in the water approximately 400 nautical miles southwest of the Mexico and Guatemala border.
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A HC-130J aircraft was deployed from Sacramento, California, to search an area covering more than 1,000 nautical miles and issued an urgent marine information broadcast to mariners in the area, according to the spokesperson.
As of Friday, the Coast Guard has coordinated more than 65 hours of search efforts, including working with partner nations and commercial fishing and Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue (AMVER) system vessels.
On Wednesday, five suspected narco-terrorists were killed in a U.S. military strike against two vessels allegedly operated by designated terrorist organizations involved in narcotics trafficking.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this story.
